Digital Magic
by kenthomas
Summary: Crossover with Harry Potter. The Frontier gang has grown up, and are called to Hogwarts. Little do they know that soon they are about to get very involved in fighting the Dark Lord, and somehow their duties as Digidestinieds are connected to it.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**Hi! I know I promised myself that I would only upload non-anime things here, but I changed my mind. Hehe. I don't know if this fic is good, but just read it. It might not be so long, because of school but I will try to finish it.**

* * *

"So it's agreed – we won't tell anyone about the Digiworld unless we want a good kick up the-"

"That's enough, Takuya," Zoe interrupted.

"So, do we agree?" Takuya asked, slightly impatient.

"Yes!"

"Agreed!"

It presented a bit of a problem, since they had to explain where they had all met each other and how did all of them change their personality to be more confident, especially Tommy. As for Kouji and Kouichi, they had to come up with a story about how they had met and suddenly become so close, since to the world they had only met for at least a few minutes. In the end they came up with a story about having met for quite some time and hadn't dared to tell anyone.

That conversation had taken place a little under five years ago. Fast-forward to the present Takuya was feeling extremely panicky. He, as usual, had spent his free time daydreaming about the digiworld and his adventures there, until he realised that the moment wasn't meant to be free time.

"Oh, man," he moaned. "I'm going to be soooo late! Kimaru-san is going to kill me!"

"It's your own fault, don't look at me like I did anything," his younger brother, Shinya scowled at him.

"Wait until you start," Takuya retorted, grabbing his bag that lay in a corner, where he had left it and then entirely forgotten about the meeting that he was supposed to attend and currently was late for.

"Can't wait," Shinya called dryly after him as he burst out of the room and nearly headed for the kitchen instead of the front door.

It had taken quite some time, but at last, each of the six had slowly found out that each and every one of them had wizard blood. It had been quite ridiculous the first time they found out. Young wizards in Japan begun formal training at the standard age of eleven after informal teaching by parents, in schools concealed from the Muggles.

It would have been quite funny when they had all met in the underground school on their first day and almost screamed in shock. The bigger shock came when Tommy appeared with his older brother who had graduated for a visit. The biggest one came when JP stepped out of a classroom holding a wand. The shock that all of them were coincidentally wizards (and a witch), and had somehow managed to keep it a secret.

The school had talked about the meeting for months. Lord Voldemort had returned to England, and the event had been made public, causing chaos in Europe. All the students called for the meeting knew were the meeting had something to do with it, nothing more. Coincidence was nothing like discovering that they all were wizards, especially since the six had been the only six to be called from the school for the meeting.

The meeting was to be held in their school, a magically hollowed out basement under a temple. Takuya was panting as he slipped into the temple building under the guise of being a trained priest there (the reason the wizards and witches gave to Muggles) and almost tumbled down the flight of stairs that led down into the school.

"Sorry, I forgot about the meeting," he apologised profusely, knocking down Kouji in his haste as he bowed to their headmaster, Himaru san. "Oops, sorry, Kouichi… I mean Kouji."

"No need to apologise, just try to quit the habit of knocking into me," Kouji said, as Kouichi helped him up. The twins now looked very similar. Kouchi's hair had darkened to Kouji's bluish black, while both boys wore their hair a little over shoulder-length.

"It's a good thing that our visitors aren't here," their headmaster said sternly. He was strict, but extremely friendly outside school. Needless to say, he was quite well liked by students, especially since he addressed students by their first names. He looked around at all six students he had selected for the meeting. "Each of you represent one of the elements, and I hope you will represent the school honourably."

The wizarding school, like most others, separated students into groups. For the Japanese school, the groups represented each of the elements – Fire, Light, Wind, Ice, Thunder, and Darkness. Unsurprisingly, Takuya went to the Fire group, Zoe to the Wind group, Kouji to the Light group, Tommy to the Ice group, JP to the Thunder group, and Kouichi to the Darkness group.

"Our visitors are in the room off the main hallway, being served tea by the house elves" Kimaru san said. "We will go in now, and I certainly express hope that you will all behave honourably." This particular comment seemed directed at Takuya, who bowed sheepishly.

They went to the room. "May I present, Professor Albus Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, England," Kimaru-san introduced.

"Albus Dumbledore?" Takuya nearly shouted in surprise. What was this famous wizard doing here in Japan? Kouji and Kouichi who were on either side of him both noticed his slack jaw and elbowed him at the same time.

They took seats alongside the long table, opposite their visitors after bowing deeply. Their headmaster sat at the head of the table.

"A pleasure to present to you," Kimaru-san said to the visitors, "six students of this school."

"Just their first names, if you like," Professor Dumbledore said cheerfully. "It seems so much more informal. To be honest, I quite dislike formalities. Just time-wasting, energy-draining useless acts, I personally think. If I ever met the person who invented formalities and insisted that they be used at every kind of meeting possible, I do have a desire to bore that person to death with his own invention."

All six students almost gaped.

"Takuya, of Fire," Kimura-san began the introductions. "Zoe of Wind. Tommy of Water. Junpei – JP for short, of Earth. Kouji of Light, and his twin, Kouichi of Darkness." He inclined his head as he introduced each student.

"Charmed," Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling. "As I am sure you know, the purpose of our meeting is to discuss Lord Voldemort's return just recently. You must be asking yourselves, why am I meeting you, when Lord Voldemort is in England, not Japan? Why am I wasting my time talking to you, when I could be doing much more worthwhile things, like sipping a nicely cooled drink in a bar accompanied by a few hags as drinking partners?"

Prof McGonagall coughed slightly at this, looking exasperated. The six students just stared, each wondering if they were dreaming.

"Of course, I do not have such a liberty right now, and hags might not make such fascinating drinking partners as I would think, so back to the topic. You headmaster and I have discussed this beforehand and we have decided not to give you all the information at once. However, as the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – yes, I know it's a long name to remember – I have the pleasure of telling you that each of you has a place in my long-named school for one year, at least."

"What?"

This time Zoe and JP elbowed Takuya, who reddened sheepishly.

"Yes, and no need to hurt your friend there, as I believe that 'What?' is the appropriate reaction," Dumbledore added genially.

"Term starts on the first of September," Prof McGonagall said. She took out a bundle of yellowish envelopes and handed them out one by one. "Here are your letters. Enclosed are lists of items needed and tickets for the Hogwarts Express."

"Our business here is done then," Dumbledore said cheerfully. "I guess we need not impose on you any further. I hope to see you in Hogwarts on the first day of term."

&&&&

"Let me get this straight. We're going to England."

"Yes. And quit asking each of us that, Takuya," Kouichi said firmly.

Takuya, who had first asked JP to confirm that they were going to study in England, and then repeated the question to Zoe, then to Tommy, then to Kouji, finally to Kouichi, slumped down, looking dazed. "Wow…"

They had retreated to the empty Darkness classroom nearby to talk while their headmaster saw off their visitors. All were reading and rereading their letters, which had been written in English writing charmed into Japanese.

"Wow, we can bring pets!" Tommy said excitedly. "That means I can bring Piyomon with me!"

The other five suddenly straightened up and stared at him. "You're bringing a digimon with you?" JP asked in disbelief.

Tommy took a while to figure out why the others were so tense, then laughed. "Oh, I mean my owl. I named her Piyomon… After a digimon, to remind me of the Digiworld…"

The five let out a mass 'aw' of exasperation and went back to their letters. Then Zoe let out a shriek.

"You gone insane, Zoe?" Takuya asked cautiously. "Er… Kouichi, have you Darkness students been doing anything in here that could have side effects-"

"It's not that," Zoe interrupted. "Isn't today the twenty-eighth of August? Doesn't that mean that the first of September… less than five days away?"

It was Takuya's turn to scream.

"What's going on in here?" Kimaru-san entered, having finished sending off Dumbledore and McGonagall. "And why are you screaming, Takuya-kun? Kouichi, did the Darkness students do anything that-"

"Nothing like that, sir." Kouichi glanced at Kouji, who shrugged.

"I was a Fire element too," Kimaru-san said, as if reading their minds. "Temperamental, rash, a tendency to rush without thinking into things, although a certain flair for leadership…"

"Sensei, how did this come about?" Takuya asked, holding up his letter, which was addressed to a Kanbara Takuya-san, Elemental School of Magical Learning, Basement of Temple, Japan.

"Ah… The questions. I thought that Professor Dumbledore already said that not every bit of information would be fed to you. You will just do what you have been told, period. No other questions asked, it's too dangerous if you know too much. I don't want any of you rushing off headlong without thinking into something just because you've caught wind of a mild rumour."

Each of them felt at least ten years younger to be reprimanded like that, not to mention extremely curious. Tommy actually fidgeted a little in his seat.

"So, when do we get our school things, Sensei?" JP asked.

"I myself will be bringing you over to London to buy your things," Kimaru-san said. "As for today, you will have to inform your parents that this is an exchange program, and also to anyone else who asks. Remember, you are now on an exchange program, sponsored by Japan as a gesture of friendly diplomatic ties between England and us. And for goodness sake, please apply Occlumency when you're telling people that."

"And if they don't allow us to go?" Tommy asked, already forming some sort of (lame) argument in his head should his parents not allow him to go. After all, You-Know-Who had returned to the country. Both his parents were wizarding folk and knew perfectly well about the Dark Lord so it was no use pretending.

"Well, that's your job to make sure you are allowed to go," their headmaster said with a small hint of a smile.

"But why us?" Zoe asked. "How exactly were we selected anyway? It's not like we recently had any tests or things like that."

"You were personally handpicked by your elemental teachers," Kimaru-san explained. "Each elemental teacher recommended one student to represent each element."

Takuya's face broke into a silent but giddy grin. The others, knowing him, guessed that he most probably was thinking 'I'm the best in the Fire Element!' Tommy and JP discreetly thumped him on the back.

"We will meet again on the thirtieth of August, at eleven in the morning. And try your hardest not to be late, Takuya-kun," he added, making the said boy look sheepish. "Pack anything you might need there in England. And remember that England is a seasonal country. You will be wearing uniforms in school though, but will you kindly bring your own Elemental uniforms just in case. Anything else?"

"What about food?"

That came, unsurprisingly from Takuya.

Kimaru-san did not answer, deciding that that was basic enough a matter for a sixteen-year-old boy to settle by himself. "Any other more relevant questions?"

"How are we going to get to England?" Kouji asked, standing up. As usual, he was the most thoughtful of the group. They hadn't changed much since the Digiworld.

"Shifting maybe?" Takuya suggested hopefully. "I could to with practice before my test next year…"

"The term they use in Europe is 'Apparate'," Kimaru-san said. "Although you do have a student permit I doubt you want to do it, with about thirty-four stops along the way. Japan isn't located next door to England."

"Besides, Tommy doesn't even have a permit yet," JP pointed out.

"We're flying there, don't worry," Kimaru-san explained.

"Flying?"

"Like on broomsticks?"

"Maybe we could play Quidditch along the way! That is, if we don't drop any balls…"

"Takuya…"

All six were interested in Quidditch, the most popular wizarding sport internationally. Since their school was technically underground, their Quidditch pitch was just a magically hollowed out space that was echanted to look like the outdoors. It wasn't as appealing as playing above ground, but the fact was that almost the whole of Japan was practically jammed with people and they couldn't risk having an outdoor stadium. All six of them played for their Elemental teams in school.

"No, not on broomsticks. Do you actually know how far it is? You'll just fall asleep and drop off, and that wouldn't be nice. We're taking a plane."

"What?!"

Their headmaster held up a hand to silence the students, all of whom were gaping at him. "If you will just kindly be quiet and let me get to the end of my explanation. Good. As I said before, we're taking a plane. It's not the ordinary Muggle plane, how would you look bringing an owl aboard one? And what do you think the security's reaction will be when they check your bags?"

"So what kind of plane is it?" Takuya asked, already impatient.

"You'll see."

A collective groan arose.

tbc..

&&&&

**That's the first chapter. I've already begun the next chapter, so an update won't be that long... I think. Review and tell me what you think, I appreciate any comments. By the way, the version of Digimon Frontier that I watched was dubbed in Singapore... I think. I watched both the Chinese version and the English version. Twice the English, by the way. That makes three times.**


	2. Chapter 2

"And that should be it."

"All that?"

Kouji and Kouichi still lived apart, but visited each other as frequently as possible, which rose to the spare room in the Kimura apartment being furnished for Kouji and a room being prepared for Kouichi in the Minamoto house. Since they didn't see each other in magic school much, being in different elements, they had made it a point to alternatively sleep over at each other's house on weekends, much to the initial surprise of their parents who had been very surprised that they knew each other so well already.

Kouichi, who had dropped by to see Kouji, was sitting on the edge of Kouji's bed, while his twin started to pile stuff into a bag. "Why aren't you packed yet anyway?"

"I was thinking…"

"You always are."

"I mean, I was wondering, why suddenly put us in Hogwarts? It's so sudden. I have a kind of feeling that there's something going on."

"I thought about that too. I don't really like lying to Mother about being on an exchange program. You got the permission slip signed?"

"Does that mean that you haven't got it signed yet?"

"I told you, I don't like lying to Mother."

Kouji stared, then shrugged, folding some dress robes and prodding it into his bag with a wand. "You know something? Your element really should be Light since you're so honest. And I really mean it."

"I don't like using Occlumency either. I just get a guilty feeling every time I do. It's like trying to hide a lie."

"Now I seriously do think that you should be Light."

Kouichi laughed. "Very funny. Your slip signed?"

"Yep." Kouji, with some difficulty, zipped the bag shut. "I wonder what plane Kimaru-san was talking about?"

"Must be something surprising, by the sounds of it."

"Yeah…"

&&&&

Kouichi lay on his bed, flicking his wand at nothing in particular as he wondered what to tell his mother. What he had told his brother was true; he couldn't bear lying to anyone, especially his mother. He would never lie to her. But the reason why they had been instructed to lie was for safety reasons. He closed his eyes in frustration, flicking his wand particularly aggressively.

A shower of fireworks exploded above him, and he rolled away to avoid them. The colourful sparks singed holes in his bed sheets, and he repaired them with a prod of his wand. As he sat up, he caught sight of the broomstick that stood in a corner. It was an Eastern style broomstick, a gift from his father for his twelfth birthday. Kouji had also received a similar broom. Different from the Western style brooms, the twigs were made of light wood polished to a shining silver. The handle too was painted silver, so that it glimmered in the light. A dark purple lettering on the handle said _Toukiu 3.6._

Even though he had met the other half of his family, he still sometimes felt odd, as if something else was missing from his life. He sometimes just wandered around the neighbourhood, lost in thought as he remembered his first few days in the Digiworld. As Duskmon. He recalled, those days, he still vaguely remembered, was when he felt the most contented. Like everything was perfect in his life. Kouji never knew about this; he had taken care not to mention it, always employing Occlumency around those thoughts.

His thoughts drifted back to his first day in Elemental School, where, he remembered with a smile, had been so shocking discovering the friends he made in the Digiworld were also wizards. He remembered when he had been placed in the Darkness Element. He had been surprised, as in the West it normally would create an impression of being a Dark wizard, which had been why the element had been termed as 'Darkness' instead of just Dark.

There was the sound of the front door unlocking, and he quickly went out. His mother was stepping into the house, a weary look on her worn but still pretty face. She worked nearby at the back of a small shop selling wizard robes, under the cover of selling Muggle clothing. The main problem was that there were simply too many people around to efficiently create a place for wizards to live openly, so it was the norm for a wizard, disguising as a Muggle.

It's now or never… Kouichi took a deep breath and stuffed his wand into his jeans pocket, which had been enchanted to hide a wand. Quickly calling up his Occlumency, knowing that his mother was modestly skilled at Legilimens, he moved forward.

"Good day, Mother?"

His mother smiled wearily, not replying. Kouichi knew. Business wasn't very good, since the shop was in a crowded Muggle area. He grabbed a cup from the kitchen and filled it with water, handing it to his mother.

"Mother, there's something I want to tell you."

"Go on, honey. Is there something wrong?" Mrs Kimura thanked her son, accepting the water.

"You see… I've been selected to go on an exchange program. To Hogwarts, England. Kouji's going too. There's a permission slip you need to sign."

The permission slip was just meant to make the exchange program thing more real. Kimaru-san hadn't been very clear, but he had said repeatedly that this was no ordinary exchange trip, instead having something to do with the return of You-Know-Who.

His mother frowned, then smiled. "If Kouji's going to then I won't be so worried, you two can look out for each other. But with Lord Voldemort's return…"

Mrs Kimura never said You-Know-Who. She often said that it was ridiculous the way people simply got scared of a name.

After a while she smiled. "Of course you can go. Just make sure to follow all the rules. With Dumbledore as the Headmaster, I know you'll be safe."

Kouichi breathed easier in relief. "Thanks, Mother. I'll just get the slip, then I have to leave for work…"

After recovering from the fall that took him to the Digiworld, Kouichi had taken up a part time job in a wizarding shop that had a less than decent reputation. He hadn't been able to take up a job among the more decent wizarding folk, as many knew his mother and would more than often sympathise with him and his mother, roundly abusing his father and Kouji for abandoning the family. He knew he wouldn't be able to take it, but never really told his mother or Kouji about the shop where he worked.

It was in a seedier area of Shibuya, where Muggle drunkards slumped over dustbins in the street. It was a shop selling enchanted Dark objects that he doubted that the Ministry would even approve of. The pay was good, for just performing a tricky charm to block the curses that had been placed on the objects to be sold so that the workers would be okay around the objects. He was called in every time the shop got new shipment, so it was actually quite convenient. Being a pure blood also helped to ensure he was treated properly there.

"Kimura, hurry up, there's a whole lot of boxes back in the storeroom to do. You get five Galleons for each object you charm."

"Yes, sir," he muttered.

The back room was filled with dusty boxes, all marked with 'Dangerous' in a variety of languages. Kouichi grabbed a pair of gloves hanging on the hook and put them on. Although he wasn't going to touch anything, every object was still dangerous nevertheless.

Tapping a box with his wand to open it, he performed the _Wingardium Leviosa _to examine the object inside as it hovered before him. It was a golden skull, empty eyes shining magically.

"Death curse," Kouichi muttered with a slight smirk. Almost all the objects had Death curses on them; it was sometimes so easy to predict the curses.

He worked his way through the pile of boxes, stopping occasionally to rest and look at the other boxes he hadn't opened. Being a Darkness element, the Dark objects did not affect him much as they would have affected wizards of the Light element. Instead he always felt full of energy here.

"Huh?"

He had just opened a box to reveal a crudely made snake with its mouth wide open, stretching almost to the entire height of the snake. It was ugly, an eye missing and body crooked. The weird thing was, he couldn't sense any curse on it.

The next moment, he did something totally rash and unexplainable. He ripped off a glove, and grabbed the snake with his bare right hand.

There was a light in his left palm. He stumbled back surprised, but still holding the snake tightly. Its ugly one eye was shining now. Slowly, a weight appeared in his left hand, the light disappearing slowly.

Kouichi slowly brought the thing that had appeared in his left hand up, staring at it as if in a dream.

"My D-Tector?"

&&&&

"Kouichi is there something wrong?"

"Nothing." Kouichi avoided looking at Kouji, who was staring suspiciously at him. He hadn't told anyone about the D-Tector, keeping it in a heavily enchanted box and stuffing it right into the bottom of his bag. He just had a really bad feeling about it.

The six were waiting inside the temple that stood above their school. There was actually nothing in here, but illusions were created whenever Muggles looked in. Fudas plastered the walls, functioning to prevent too much magic from spreading to the human world and causing electrical chaos. It was the day to leave for England.

Tommy had brought his owl, named Piyomon, who was right now perched above her cage and refusing to get in. Only Tommy and Zoe had brought pets, Zoe's being a magical butterfly with shiny wings that was on her head at the moment. All six had brought their broomsticks, having packed them into Muggle guitar cases for the journey to the temple, in case any Muggle was watching.

Their Headmaster, Kimaru-san appeared, talking grimly to another elderly man they didn't know. Both spoke in very low tones, and in a language they didn't recognise.

Kimaru-san abruptly stopped when he saw them watching curiously. He stepped aside a little, letting six other kids their age walk in. The group was also lugging bags with them, and two or three guitar cases concealing brooms.

"These are the other Japanese wizards and witches also invited to study at Hogwarts," Kimaru-san explained. He indicated the new six. "From the Fire Academy. There is no time to make introductions now, you shall do so on the plane."

The new six had oddly more than the usual amount of luggage. Each carried a bag on their shoulders that was bulging weirdly.

"What plane is this that we're using?" Takuya asked, unable to contain himself. He caught the eyes of the boy who was near the front of the Fire Academy group. Why had he seen him somewhere before? The boy quickly looked away, and he was reminded of Kouji and Kouichi.

Kimaru-san smiled. "This plane."

He waved a wand, and the walls behind them parted. All the 'exchange students' gasped as the walls opened up to a big, hidden area that looked too modern to belong to wizards. A small plane sat in the centre.

"It's… Small," Takuya stuttered.

"This is how you're getting there." Kimaru-san smiled at their reactions. "It's newly invented. No need to hide from Muggles with this. Flying with brooms has always presented a problem wherever there are Muggles, especially extra long distances."

The six Fire Academy students bowed to the other man, who apparently was their teacher, and joined them at the foot of the plane. This group suddenly looked even odder, without the presence of any pets or anything remotely magical. Four boys and two girls, three of the four boys were carrying guitar cases.

Kimaru-san waved his wand, and the door of the plane opened, a staircase magically appearing, descending to their feet. "Up you go," he called out.

The inside was magically expanded so that it seemed more like a thousand-seater commercial Muggle aeroplane. There was even a kitchen, a row of comfortable-looking beds separated by screens, a garden and fishpond, and a staircase going up. All 'exchange students' were in awe as they dragged their bags up. The Fire Academy students seemed extraordinarily careful about their bags.

Kimaru-san waited as they chose seats. Naturally the Elemental School students sat by themselves, while the Fire Academy students kept to a group.

"Er… Sensei," Takuya said, raising a hand. "May I ask – who's piloting this plane?"

"I am," Kimaru-san replied calmly.

"What?"

The headmaster smiled at the Elemental students' reaction.

"You can fly a plane?"

"This plane was specially loaned to us from the International Confederation of Wizards. It is normally used to transport Ministers for Magic for long distances throughout the world, but Professor Dumbledore requested its use for this exchange program." Kimaru-san nodded at them. "Enjoy your journey. It'll take roughly two hours, so I think it'll be enough for introductions." He disappeared through a door at the front.

Takuya, being the friendly one, was the first to move to the Fire Academy Students. "Hi," he said, stopping in the aisle and bowing. "I'm Takuya Kanba – ARGH!"

"Oops, sorry," one of the boys apologised, his face scarlet as he quickly grabbed his bag, which previously had been hopping up to Takuya. He hissed as he struggled with the bag, which seemed to be alive. His companions all flushed with an Oops-Not-Again look. Finally he straightened up, as another boy with dark blue hair took his bag for him and stuffed it underneath a seat.

"Sorry about that," he apologised again. "Our bags are… Er… Enchanted." He looked highly uncomfortable. "I'm Davis Motomiya."

The other Elemental Students joined them, except for Kouichi and Kouji, who were seated together and merely watching them. They quickly introduced each other.

"Zoe Orimoto," Zoe said with a smile.

The two girls in the Fire Academy group introduced themselves as Kari Kamiya and Yolei. The youngest of the group was Tommy's age, a boy named Cody.

The Fire Academy students still looked red about Davis's hopping bag. Another of the bags began quivering, and the dark-haired boy quickly pushed it under a seat, muttering something.

"Thanks," a blond boy called out. "I'm TK Takaishi," he said.

"And that's Ken," Davis said, indicating the dark-haired boy, who seemed to be slipping a chocolate bar into another bag that quivered even more violently. "Ken Ichijouji."

"No way!" Takuya gasped suddenly. "The Ken Ichijouji! Wow, really!"

Ken seemed embarrassed. He muttered something to Cody. It sounded like 'They're hungry' and turned to them and nodded with a small smile.

"Hey, guys, come on over!" Zoe called to the twins. "Kouji and Kouichi," she told the Fire Academy group. "They're twins, and as you can see, they're not at all very sociable."

Cody began discreetly slipping chocolate into the bags, looking very uncomfortable. Only Tommy noticed, but decided not to ask.

"I'm still hungry," suddenly came a tiny voice that quickly made all the Fire Academy students flush red. Davis grabbed his bag and hissed into it. "You already had breakfast!"

"The bags need to eat?" Takuya asked, mystified.

"Yeah!" Davis said too fast to be telling the truth. He dropped the bag into a seat, whispering what sounded like threats if it didn't shut up.

"So the bags are like your pets?" Takuya continued, still bewildered. "Why not just keep an owl or something? Owls deliver letters, but bags don't."

Zoe elbowed him hard.

Suddenly they all became aware of a beeping noise. It seemed to be coming from Davis. TK and Kari both at the same time pushed him down onto the floor and began talking about the weather.

"Come on," JP hissed to the others. "They don't look very comfortable."

They went back to their seats, still staring at the weird Fire Academy students. TK was admonishing Davis about not putting something into a bag.

"I forgot, okay!"

"How can you forget that!"

"Sounds like you and Kouji," Zoe whispered to Takuya who was sitting beside her.

"They're a weird lot," JP observed. "Like they're hiding something."

The trip continued uneventfully, except when a bag from the Fire Academy flew up into the air yelling out in pain and when Takuya accidentally blew up a box of magical fireworks. Apart from that, the two-hour journey was pretty fun.

"Kouichi, quit studying! We're nearly there!"

"Takuya, don't try to influence him, please," Zoe sighed. "Everyone knows that you hate studying."

Near the end of the journey, the Fire Academy had conjured up a screen around several seats. Things were violently bouncing up and down behind the screen, emitting delighted squeals. Kimaru-san emerged as they were nearing London.

"Okay, kids," he announced. "We'll be touching down in London in a while, so hurry up and get cleaned up. Kouichi, you can put that book down now."

Takuya mouthed 'I told you so' over his shoulder at Kouichi, then turned back to look at Kimaru-san. "That's what I told him."

Kimaru-san continued calmly. "Now there is the matter of the language barrier. I will perform a particular charm on you to enable you to understand English, and for others to understand what you say."

The Fire Academy was suddenly listening very attentively.

One by one the 'exchange students' came up to the Headmaster, who muttered something and tapped them on their heads. The Fire Academy students had a silent and hurried discussion, only noticed by the twins. In the end they pushed Ken forward.

"You want to know how to perform that language charm?" Kimaru-san repeated in surprise. "But the charm I put on you is quite long lasting."

Nevertheless, when Kimaru-san disappeared back to the front of the plane, the Fire Academy huddled together and in a very odd manner started to place the language charm on their bags.

As a result, when they touched down in London, they were all staring suspiciously at one another.

"Kouichi, why can't you just quit studying? We're in London already!"

"Takuya…"

* * *

**Review and tell me what you think..**

**Ken**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry about the long update. I kinda got confused over which chapters I posted online, since my fanfic files are in another computer...**

* * *

They emerged from the plane into a bright, spotless hangar that looked suspiciously for wizards only. Kimaru-san waited patiently as they scrambled to get all their bags (the Fire Academy students actually fighting with a few of their 'enchanted bags') and then led the way out through a door. They came out in a dirty alleyway.

"Welcome to London," Kimaru-san said. "Now follow me, if you get lost here it's not my fault."

"Where are we going?" Takuya asked, hoisting a bag onto his shoulders.

"Diagon Alley," Kouichi answered for him. "It's an area of the big wizarding town that is concealed here. Most Hogwarts supplies are sold here."

"Wow," Takuya said, impressed. "How did you know all that?"

"Some people actually do study their destination before travelling, Takuya," Zoe said with a smirk.

They stopped in front of a shady-looking pub with a sign that said 'The Leaky Cauldron.' Kimaru-san hushed their questions, and then motioned them in.

The place was nearly empty, as it had been ever since Lord Voldemort's return became public. The bartender Tom was dejectedly slumped on a seat, but he jumped up excitedly when they came in. "Finally here, eh?" he said with a toothy grin. He had obviously been expecting them.

"Yes, finally here," Kimaru-san replied, bowing.

"The room keys," Tom said, handing over several bronze keys with number tags on them. "All on the same floor. You take number 23, Kimaru old friend. The rest of the rooms have double beds."

Kimaru-san started throwing the keys to the group without even saying a warning, startling them, so that only Kouji, Zoe, Kari and Ken managed to catch them. The other keys clattered to the floor noisily.

"Glad you showed up," Tom continued. "Now not many people come, what with You-Know-Who and all."

"Get your bags into your rooms," Kimaru-san instructed. "Then have a short break, I'll call you when it's time to go buy your things."

Takuya and JP shared a room, while Tommy roomed with Zoe, who couldn't bring herself to share a room with Takuya or JP even though they asked. Naturally the twins went together. As for the Fire Academy students, they all looked extremely relieved over something.

&&&&

"Ooh, who's that?"

"It's the mirror talking, right?" Kouji said, lying down on the bed. Kouichi turned to see the cracked looking glass on the wall.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Pure-bloods, aren't you two?"

"Hang something over it," Kouji said, turning over. "Or better, shut it up."

"Hey, no fair!" the mirror protested.

"_Silencio._"

Kouichi bent down to take a shirt from his bag. At the same time, he caught sight of the small box where he had locked his D-Tector in. He felt slightly guilty about not telling anyone. But then again, since it had come back somehow to him in a Dark wizard's shop, he decided that it was probably better not to say where he had gotten it.

"Hey. You're not telling me something, right?"

Kouichi forced a smile. "Why do you ask?"

"You're using Occlumency far too much for someone who hates using it," Kouji stated. "Oh, well. Tell me whenever you feel like it."

"Okay."

They spent around an hour just lying around and resting after the trip, doing nothing. Kouichi dozed off sitting on his bed with his head against the wall, while Kouji idly flipped through a book he had found, the language charm translating the English to Japanese automatically. Being Dark, Kouichi much preferred the darkness at night; often he slept through the evening and woke up at midnight to study. Kouji was the polar opposite; he studied and did his work in the daytime, and when night fell he was first in bed and was the first to wake up during dawn.

There was a knock on the door. "Come in," Kouji called.

The door opened slightly. It was a boy from the Fire Academy; the one Kouji recalled was called TK Takaishi. "Kimaru-san wants to meet us downstairs, now," he said with a slight bow. He was still carrying his bag over his shoulder.

"Okay, thanks." As the door closed, Kouji threw a pillow at Kouichi. "Wake up. Hey, get up!"

"What?" Kouichi looked up sleepily. His hand was still holding on to a shirt; he had fallen asleep in the middle of taking out the shirt, his bag half-open at his feet.

"Kimaru-san wants us downstairs, probably to go buy our school stuff."

"Okay… Boy, I'm so sleepy…" Kouichi yawned, getting up. He brushed his hair out of his eyes.

"You're always sleepy in daytime," Kouji stated, amused. "I just don't get why you can just nod off in the middle of doing something, even working on a charm in magic school, but you can survive not sleeping at night. I myself can't stay up beyond ten."

"Must be our elements then, I guess. I know that our elements influence us, but I never really know how much until we shared a room."

Laughing, they went down together. They passed the Fire Academy group on the way. They seemed to be arguing over their bags.

"They should be fine, TK. I think we can just leave them in a room together," the girl called Kari was saying.

"Okay, I guess… But if someone comes in to clean and sees them, I'm not explaining."

"We'll put them in Davis and Ken's room – I think they've already made a mess out of it already. I heard Davis screaming at them to stop," the long-haired girl known as Yolei said with a laugh. "Typical Davis. I wonder how Ken puts up with him."

"What do you expect; they're partners, after all."

"They're weird, aren't they?" Kouji whispered to Kouichi, who nodded.

"Yeah… They seem to be hiding something in their bags. Did you notice that they feed their bags?"

They gathered in the Leaky Cauldron. The Fire Academy students came down without their bags. Kimaru-san waited until all of them were gathered, then started handing out money bags to each of them.

"These are your allowances for the year. Don't spend them all. You can't use our yen here, of course, but you can exchange the currency at Gringotts later if you want. Thing is, the security is so tight that it'll take ages. There's about forty Galleons in there, but the expenses for your school uniforms and books are paid for by Hogwarts. That forty Galleons is a gift from the Japanese Minister for Magic. Now follow me. By the way," he added, almost as an afterthought, "there's a quite popular wizarding joke shop there, by the name of the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. Their products are banned at Hogwarts, so don't waste your time bringing them to school."

"Well, we'll just go check it out," Takuya said brightly, quite unperturbed. "If there's anything worth buying, we'll just buy it anyway and send it back home by owl."

There was a ripple of laughter through the group. Takuya grinned appreciatively. "What, there's no problem with that, is there?"

"You should use the money on extra books," Zoe said, reminding him. "We don't know what Hogwarts teaches, at any rate. The level of magical education may be high in Japan but there are some things that are taught in England that aren't taught in Japan"

"Yeah," Kouichi agreed, although he was now immersed in a newspaper he had picked up from the bar. "There's Divination, Astronomy, Muggle Studies, Care of Magical Creatures-"

"What the heck are they?" Takuya demanded. "And what the heck is up with you?"

"Kouichi is simply being hardworking," Kimaru-san said calmly. "I will not be surprised if he turns out to be the best student in his year."

Kouichi seemed not to hear the compliment; he was now reading the newspaper apparently without the help of the language charm. They went out to the back. They stared in surprise as Kimaru-san started tapping the bricks on the worn wall, then were even more surprised when the wall magically made way and opened up into what looked like a ghost town.

"Diagon Alley. It used to be much livelier, but with the recent events, as you can see, not many are eager to step outside. Now, keep in a group, and if you by any chance see a sign pointing to a certain 'Knockturn Alley' don't go down there. It's unfamous for shops specialising in Dark magic. Now we'll just go get your school robes since they're lighter and much easier to carry around."

They went into Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. There were so many of them that Kimaru-san instructed the girls to get their school uniforms first while the boys browsed in the dress robes section, since they were required to buy dress robes.

"Hey, what do you think of this?"

"Takuya, it makes you look like a goldfish," Kouji informed him without any humour in his voice.

"Besides, those are girls' dress robes," Kouichi added.

"Eurgh!"

Takuya, who seemed to be really enjoying himself, held up pair after pair of dress robes in front of him, no matter how ridiculous they were. In another aisle, Davis of Fire Academy was doing the exact same thing, with TK and Cody laughing at his antics, Ken glaring at Davis in the exact same way Kouji was glaring at Takuya. Kouichi sighed and wandered off, looking at the robes in another aisle. He chose a dark midnight blue robe with black hems, then wandered back to get Kouji's opinion. Meeting Kouji in another aisle, he was surprised to see that his twin had chose dress robes the exact same style as the one he had chosen, only with cerulean blue hems.

"Hey, Ken, try this on!"

The twins glanced up to see Davis try to put a set of really ridiculous dress robes (white and black stripes with flashing yellow hems and white lace) on Ken, the latter looking more annoyed than amused.

"I'll rather go in the Emperor uniform, and that's saying something, Davis."

"Why must you always put yourself down like that? Ken, come on… I'll kick myself if you put it on, I swear…"

"No, he won't want that, dear, those are stocked specially for party entertainers." Madam Malkin came over, holding some black robes in her arms. "The girls are done, boys. Some of you follow me…"

"What Emperor uniform was Ken talking about?" Kouichi asked Kouji, who shrugged.

TK who had overheard Kouichi glared warningly, before going after Madam Malkin. Kouji glared back, then turned back to Kouichi. "I don't like that guy."

"Since when have you liked someone you first met, little brother?"

It took some time, but soon all had been measured for their uniforms, plain black robes with tags where they could magically inscribe their names later. The dress robes took longer, since the girls had suddenly become very choosy. The Fire Academy students all chose brightly coloured dress robes – Davis chose bright blue robes, TK green, Cody orange, Ken a pale shade of pink, Yolei purple, and Kari a reddish pink. They all seemed to know what colour each other would choose. It seemed to the Elemental students that the Fire Academy group was extremely weird.

"Sensei, where's that joke shop you told us about?"

"Takuya, I've already told you that their products are not allowed in Hogwarts. Anyway, the shop is just ahead…"

They went to Flourish and Blotts last after wandering about and bought their school books. Needless to say, Takuya was extremely bored browsing through the books.

"Kouichi, can you please tell me what do you see in those books?"

"Er… Words and pictures?"

"Very funny."

Kouichi bought quite a number of books for light reading, making Takuya throw him looks every few seconds and sigh in mock exasperation. "_Magical Places of the World, Important Magical Events in Recent History, Ancient Charms Long Forgotten…_ Kouichi, do you eat food or books?"

They left the shop a while later, each laden with schoolbooks. Kouji was helping Kouichi carry the extra books he had bought, but still the stack was quite heavy, and Zoe offered to help. They entered the Leaky Cauldron again and put their things on the tables while they went to get drinks.

"_No_ Firewhisky, Takuya."

"Yes, Kimaru-san." Takuya rolled his eyes. "Spoilsport," he muttered to JP, who shrugged, not wanting to do anything with it.

There was another group of people in the bar, several teenagers with packages of books and uniforms accompanied by anxious adults. They looked in a hurry and seemed jumpy.

The soon bought their drinks, the Elemental students sitting at a booth near the the fireplace, separate from the Fire Academy students. "Kouichi, for goodness sake, why must you keep reading that book?"

"I've only just started," was the straight reply. "It's interesting."

"What are you reading about anyway?" Tommy asked.

"Something about the main magical misconception about the nexus."

"What's a whatchasay?"

"The point where magical concentration is the most intense," said a girl's voice from behind them. "It's the meeting point between four powerful magical places."

"Hermione, he wasn't asking _you_."

The group they had seen a little earlier was standing beside them. The blonde girl who had spoken smiled. "Sorry, but since you asked." She cocked her head. "Are you from around here? You guys are foreign, right? I'm Hermione Granger."

"We're Japanese," JP said.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" the redheaded boy asked suddenly.

"Don't talk to them, they're all blood traitors and Mudbloods," a sneering voice suddenly said.

The four teens in the British group whipped around. "Malfoy, shut up," the black-haired boy said,

Kouichi, looking up from his book, suddenly recognised the blond boy. Their eyes met, and Kouichi, panicking, shook his head.

"Come on, you lot, we have to get back now," a woman accompanying the four British teens said sharply. "Harry, Ron – I mean now." She hurried to the fireplace. "Hurry up, you know how dangerous it is outside."

The four teens glared at the blond boy, then one by one vanished into the fireplace with their packages. The boy they called Malfoy stared intensely at their table, an unreadable look on his face. Kouichi quickly stared back at his book. Malfoy stared suspiciously at them, eyes traveling from Kouichi to Kouji, then left through the fireplace.

&&&&

"If I'm correct, those Elemental kids think we're nuts."

"Davis, you're a genius!"

"Thanks, Kari."

"I was just kidding."

"Aw…"

"Don't worry, Davis." A blue digimon jumped up beside him. "I think you're cool. Pretty cool."

"Thanks, Veemon. But you had better mean it."

"Pretty cool… Like just a little above average." Veemon held up his hand with two fingers almost touching.

"Aw, not you too…"

The six Fire Academy students were gathered in Davis and Ken's room, which looked like a tornado had blown through it. Wormmon and Patamon was enthusiastically building an immensely high card castle on the already charred-looking table with Exploding Snap cards, Wormmon using bits of webbing to secure the cards and Patamon flying around the wobbly castle to place cards on the higher levels.

"Actually, I think those Elementals are pretty cool," Cody said, sitting on the floor next to Armadimon. "Takuya seems just like Davis. Loudmouthed and everything."

"Since when was I a loudmouth?" Davis said, pretending to be hurt. "Ken, come on, tell them I'm not loudmouthed."

"I think I can't help you with that one," Ken said with a small smile. "Wormmon, be care-"

BOOM.

"-ful."

The card castle had blown up with a huge explosion, sending Patamon shooting through the air and landing on top of the cupboard, and Wormmon soaring in a high arch into Yolei's hands.

"That was fun!" Wormmon wriggled out of Yolei's hands. "Let's do it again!"

"We'll have to be careful if we want to let the digimon out on the train tomorrow," Kari said, where she was sitting on the edge of a bed with Gatomon. "Someone might see, but we can't possibly put them in the bags all day."

"I second that," Gatomon said.

"I third that." Veemon paused with a hand in the air. "Is there even such a word?"

"What more, the Elementals might pop in on us, since we're all from Japan," TK said, retrieving Patamon from the top of the closet and cleaning the burnt-looking digimon with his shirt. "Do you think we can trust them?"

"I think maybe Takuya," Cody said. "Since he is pretty like Davis…"

"Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?"

"Zoe is okay," Yolei spoke up. "When we were getting our uniforms back in Madam Malkin's. She's quite friendly and everything, likes Quidditch, speaks Italian reasonably."

"But those twins seem like jerks," Davis put in. "They just ignore everyone else most of the time. Especially Kouji. Kouichi seems to be in a daze all the time. He could even be sleepwalking."

"Kouji's kinda like Ken though," Kari said. Ken glanced at her with a questioning look. "You ever see him smile?"

"Only at his twin," TK said. "They seem quite close – but still it's like they don't really know each other."

"Are there any more Exploding Snap cards?"

"Patamon… You're burnt enough…"

"Barbequed, more like," Wormmon said with a grin. "Minus the sauce."

"You're making me hungry! Davis, is there any more chocolate?

&&&&

Kouji woke up early the next day, to find Kouichi fast asleep in bed with his head rested on a thick book, a wand lying beside him, its tip still shining brightly. He grinned, but didn't bother to try to wake him up; he knew that Kouichi only got up at the very most, at eight. It could be because of their opposite elements, but maybe the fact that Kouichi often read books throughout the night made him sleepy in daytime.

He had a quick shower, then wandered outside. Kari was in the corridor. She panicked when she saw him and quickly tried to push something white behind her into her bag.

"Idiot," Kouji muttered. He traced his steps back to his room only to walk into another Fire Academy student.

Man, what on earth do they get up so early for? Kouji scowled mildly at TK, who scowled back. He was holding an odd, wriggling bundle of black robes in his hands. TK quickly disappeared into a room, followed by Kari. There were voices coming from the room. It seemed like all the Fire Academy students had already woken up long time ago. His watch read six thirty.

Kouichi was still asleep when he returned to the room after a quick breakfast downstairs. Kouji shook him once, and when he didn't respond, went to have another bath. When he came out, his twin was _still_ sleeping.

"Hey, get up." Kouji shook his brother once, contemplated using the _Aguamenti_ Charm, decided against it knowing that Kouichi would probably pull the same trick at about 3 am the next day just to annoy him (since it had happened once before) and prodded him roughly.

"Huh?" Kouichi's eyes slowly opened. Suddenly, for some reason, he looked panicky. Before Kouji could ask why, Kouichi hurried over to his bag, pulled out some clothes, examined something out of sight, then looked relieved at whatever it was.

"Er… What's the matter?"

"What – Oh, nothing." Kouichi said, looking shifty. "I'll go shower now…"

Kouji stared suspiciously at Kouichi's bag when his twin left. The clothes he had previously pulled out hastily had been quickly refolded neatly and stuffed back in. He suspected shrewdly that Kouichi was using Occlumency more than usual – but why? Kouichi normally hated using Occlumency or Legilimency, or any other mind spells in any case. Was he concealing something –

"Oi! Kimaru-san says get downstairs in five minutes or he's leaving us here!"

"Ok, Takuya," Kouji called back.

&&&&

Kouichi locked the door behind him and breathed deeply in relief. It was just a dream, he told himself firmly. Just a dream. I dreamt that we had to go back to the Digiworld again, and it was because of the Dark D-Tector.

He stared into the mirror. His reflection that stared back at him was pale and weary, long hair messy. No matter what he did, his hair was never as sleek and glossy as his twin's. It was always wild. When he tied it up in a ponytail, Takuya often commented that Kouichi looked like a wild gangster, while Kouji looked like a decent gangster.

Kouji knocked on the door. "Kouichi? Hurry up, we have to leave in a while!"

"Okay."

&&&&

They met downstairs in five minutes. Tommy's owl was off delivering the huge package of items that they had bought at the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, while the ornamental-looking butterfly that Zoe kept as a pet was fluttering about her head, its rainbow-coloured wings shining with every flap of its wings. Kimaru-san was waiting patiently at a booth.

"Good, got all your luggage? Right, leave them here, Tom's sending the trunks to the station separately."

"Station?" JP asked. "How exactly are we going to Hogwarts anyway?"

Kimaru-san smiled. "By train."

"Train?"

The Headmaster herded them outside, and with strict instructions to walk in pairs, led them up the road through Muggle London. The Fire Academy students lagged behind slightly, while Takuya and JP were at the head of the line with Kimaru-san. People stared at the odd group, but made no comment. Finally, after a short walk, they entered a crowded train station.

"What train are we taking?" Takuya asked.

"It's the Hogwarts Express, specially for bringing the Hogwarts students to school. It departs from Platform Nine and Three Quarters. It's a magical platform, hidden from Muggles. Obviously they can't cart the students off in the Muggle part of the station without attracting attention; normal Muggle students obviously do not bring toads, owls, cauldrons or broomsticks to school."

They were impressed by the hidden platform. Takuya made quite a show of pretending to fall through the barrier that was the doorway to the hidden platform, even shrieking loudly. Kouji glared, and when Kimaru-san wasn't looking, he pushed Takuya through, making the latter really scream as he fell through the barrier. Finally all of them were through.

"Now, listen. I want you all to behave yourselves," Kimaru-san said sternly. He seemed to be addressing Takuya in particular. "I don't want to hear that you've done something insane like what you did last year, putting a charm on yourself just to get out of class."

"It wasn't a charm, it was a potion."

"Whatever it is, I expect all of you to give a good impression of Japan," Kimaru-san ignored Takuya's comment. "And I also have a special request from Professor Dumbledore that you wear your Japanese uniforms for tonight. He wishes to introduce you personally to the school as it has been quite a long time since there were exchange students from Japan."

"Yes sir!"

Quite a number of people stared at them. An elderly man came over to them, holding out a wand and guiding along a fully laden trolley. "Your luggage," he said, reaching them.

"Right. Now remember to behave," Kimaru-san reminded them sternly.

Takuya sighed. "Sir, you sound like a broken record."

&&&&

**Eh... **


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry about the slow update. You know, school and everything. By the way, I'm changing some of the element names. Please notify me if there are any irregularities. And I'm Chinese, not Japanese or anything.**

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"Two Galleons to Kari instantly getting hit on by five guys at once when we reach Hogwarts."

"Stop it, TK," Kari laughed, although a faint hint of a blush was creeping onto her cheeks. Gatomon grinned up at her from the floor where she and Armadimon were idly spinning a magical whirring top back and forth between them.

"I'm serious," TK protested. "You're really very pretty now."

Davis who was sitting next to the window sort of swelled up jealously. "Hey, Kari's my girl, TK! Watch who you're flirting with!"

"I'm not your girl, Davis," Kari said, somehow managing to keep a straight face through the others' giggling. "I don't have a boyfriend, I really don't."

"You're saying that you don't fancy me?" Davis asked, crestfallen. "Not even one tiny little bit?"

Kari considered it for a while, her cheek resting in her palm. "Actually, not really. I just think of us as friends."

"Oh, come on, you must fancy someone at least a little bit!"

"Why can't we ever talk about something more productive, like Hogwarts?" Cody interrupted. "I think we've discussed who likes who at least twenty times already."

"Fine, then we'll talk about who likes who at Hogwarts."

"Not _that_, Davis."

"You guys don't get it, do you?" Davis threw up his hands in mock exasperation. "I've heard that Western schools have balls. What if there was a ball the very next day and I ended up with no partner?"

"You know why schools are called schools, Davis?" Yolei asked. "Because students go there to study, not to dance."

"Ken, back me up!" Davis almost yelled, looking at his partner in frustration. "Why on earth don't you ever support me when the others are against me?"

Ken stared at him with the look that said 'what-were-you-expecting?'. He shrugged mutely, not really willing to be dragged into such a discussion.

"Do you think we did the right thing in bringing the Digimon to Hogwarts?" Cody cut in, eager to change the topic. "I mean, there will be so many people and we can't risk getting found out."

"What would the alternative be, leave them back in Japan?" TK reasoned. "For one, there would be no one to take care of them. Second, what if they get into trouble there?"

"And we'll miss you guys!" Patamon quipped, flying onto TK's head and ruffling his hair.

"Point taken," Cody sighed. "You guys brought your Digivices?"

"Yeah, although I don't really see the point." Yolei pulled out hers and examined it. "There's bound to be too much magic around Hogwarts for something like this to – eh?"

"For something like this to eh?" Davis repeated, perplexed. "What do you mean, to eh?"

"Eh?" Yolei looked momentarily confused before she figured out what he meant. "Oh, that's what you meant… I mean, aren't there six of us here?"

"What, have you forgotten how to count or something?" Davis asked. "Yeah, there're six of us here, twelve counting the Digimon." He indicated the floor where most of the Digimon were now engaged in a playful wrestle, tumbling over and over on the floor with muffled squeaks.

"There are seven dots on the Digivice."

"There can't be…" Kari leant over to her to peer at the screen. She frowned as she slowly counted and recounted the blinking dots of various colours that indicated the location of nearby Digivices. "Yeah, you're right. There are seven, instead of six."

"Anyone brought an extra Digivice?" Davis asked so seriously that everyone thought that he was out of his mind.

"Unless there's another Digidestinied around here," Kari said slowly.

"It could be possible, you know." Ken spoke up for the first time. "Remember when we travelled around the world to get the escaped Digimon back into the Digiworld? There were so many other Digidestinied in other parts of the world. It's not impossible that there's another group of Digidestinied right here on this train."

"So you're saying that we're might not the only Digidestinied here?" Davis asked slowly, making a mental note to tell Ken later not to speak in such a complicated way.

"Or your Digivice could be damaged?" TK asked, pulling out his own to examine it. "Hey, mine registers seven too!"

"Maybe all of your Digivices are damaged," V-mon suggested with a faint smile as the rest pulled out their own.

&&&&

"Let's play truth or dare!"

"_Puh-lease_, Takuya. That's so childish." JP rolled his eyes. What are the English students going to think when they see us playing that?"

"Then I dare you to play the game in front of them!"

"Takuya is going to embarrass all of us at Hogwarts," Zoe sighed. "Takuya, are you six or sixteen?"

"Six, of course! Huh – I mean sixteen!"

The rest laughed – 'the rest' of course not including Kouji, who of course gave Takuya a disgusted look and turned away. Zoe pulled out a Japanese magazine and started reading it, with Tommy who was sitting opposite her trying to read it upside down with an odd frown on his face. Kouji returned to his usual indifferent manner, folding his arms, while Kouichi leant against the window and gazed out dreamily. Takuya and JP started a noisy game of Exploding Snap, which did exactly what it was meant to do – explode.

"Don't do that!" Zoe yelled, as Takuya hurriedly threw aside a handful of dangerously glowing cards, which exploded with full force against the screen of the compartment door, creating a blackened smudge right in the middle. The rest of the cards blew up with similar force, sending a burning piece right into the middle of Zoe's magazine.

One thing about the Japanese version of Exploding Snap, it normally exploded with far more strength than the Western ones. And it was also highly unsuitable to play in small enclosed areas.

JP sheepishly cleared the black smudge on the screen with his wand, while Takuya scowled heavily at Zoe, who was scowling heavily back. Kouji sighed inwardly. _When on earth are they ever going to act their ages? Oh, right. Never._

A sudden bang rocked their compartment, throwing Tommy (who had been leaning over to read Zoe's magazine) right into JP. Kouichi started up just in time to see Kouji hit Takuya for flying into him. The train wobbled slightly, and started to slow down.

"I didn't do anything," Takuya blurted out, since he was already accustomed to being accused of that sort of stuff. "My wand's still in my pocket."

Kouichi stared out the window. In the distance he could make out a tiny black speck of something swirling in the air. It got bigger and bigger, swirling faster and faster. Several tinier specks seemed to fly out of the grey whirlwind. "Er, guys, there's something out there…"

"Where?" Takuya stumbled over Tommy to get to the window. In the other carriages, other students too were gaping out at the strange object in the sky. Zoe fought her way through the tangle of bodies to look out the window, and Kouichi backed away, slightly afraid of being squashed.

The train slowly picked up speed again. Before any of them could wonder aloud what it was, it vanished from view. The train sped up to its original speed once more, and soon they were hurtling along at full speed.

"Didn't catch a good look at it," Tommy complained, going back to his seat. He leant back, closing his eyes. "Wake me when we get there."

The rest of the journey passed without event, unless you counted Takuya blowing up his third pack of Exploding Snap cards, one time right in Zoe's face, making her so angry that she chased him along the corridor, drawing many curious stares. JP, Tommy and Kouji (minus Kouichi who had fallen asleep), with enough experience with these sort of matters, quickly went to stop their fight before it blew out of hand.

You could say it was deeply embarrassing. On the bright side (if there actually was one), they met the group of British teenagers they had seen in Diagon Alley. It was purely by accident; Takuya, who was really afraid of getting hexed by Zoe, who was infamous for her ability to cast the most humiliating hexes, randomly slipped into a compartment. It turned out to be the group's compartment. Luckily, they didn't seem to think them childish.

"Sorry about that," Tommy quickly apologised, trying to get Zoe to keep her wand.

Kouji mutely grabbed the back of Takuya's head and bent him over before he could protest. They grappled for a while in the corridor, before Zoe, with an unmistakeable sigh of 'boys' pushed them down to the floor with her wand.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry I blew up the cards right under your nose on purpose!" Takuya yelled.

"That wasn't sincere."

"Fine. I said I'm sorry. What more do you want?"

"A sincere apology."

"What? I already apologised! How sincere do you want it to be?"

"Takuya will never manage that," Kouji commented, watching as Zoe let out a stream of mild expletives in Japanese, which the Language Charm fortunately couldn't translate.

"This is so embarrassing," JP muttered, scratching the back of his head with a sheepish smile.

"No, it's okay," one of the English boys said. "We met in Diagon Alley, didn't we?"

"Yeah," Takuya said, giving up trying to manage a sincere apology and bouncing over to sit next to the boy. "I'm Takuya Kanbara. Call me Takuya."

"Takuya?" One of the girls extended a hand. Takuya shook hands with her. "I'm Hermione Granger. And that's Harry Potter… Ginny Weasley… And her older brother Ron – get that look of your face!"

"What look?" Ron defended himself.

"That look that says you're seeing something…" Hermione sighed, giving up. "Oh, well."

"Sorry about the fight," Zoe said sheepishly. She introduced herself. "Takuya never acts his age. He okay sometimes, but most of the time he should be in a daycare centre."

"OI!"

"I'm Tommy," Tommy introduced himself. "And that's JP… And that's Kouji."

"We're exchange students from Japan," JP explained. "There's another from our group, Kouichi, Kouji's twin brother, he's back in our compartment. There's another group too, from another school in Japan."

"Exchange students?" Hermione questioned, eyebrows raised. "It's been ages since there were any exchange students or anything… I didn't know about any programmes."

"And only from Japan?" Harry asked. "No others?"

"Not that we know of," Tommy replied. "I think we're the only ones…"

"We have to get back," Kouji interrupted. "It's getting dark, and I think we're reaching soon."

"Yeah, we should be arriving any time soon," Ginny said, looking at her watch. "Why don't we meet up later in Hogwarts, and we can have a good chat?"

"That is, if you guys get into Gryffindor," Ron added.

"What's that?" Takuya asked. "Some kind of element?"

Zoe and Kouji exchanged painful, embarrassed looks. Zoe spoke up. "Takuya, they don't sort students by their elements in the West."

"What elements?" Hermione asked, interested. "I've read about the Eastern style magic schools, but I don't really understand what they mean by the elements."

"Something our genius Hermione doesn't understand?" Ron's eyes widened dramatically. "Are you serious?"

"Ha ha," Hermione deadpanned.

They spent quite a lot of time exchanging information on the elements and houses. By the time they finished, it was really very dark and they had to hurry back to change into their uniforms. As they approached their compartment, they saw Kouichi talking to a familiar-looking English boy in the corridor. When Kouichi saw them coming, the conversation quickly ended and the boy disappeared into a compartment a distance away.

"Who was that?" Kouji asked his twin.

"Who was who?" Kouichi looked at him innocently. He had already changed into his Japanese uniform, a kimono styled plain dark red robe, although slightly more fitting that the normal kimono, with a black belt around the waist instead of the usual obi, and black strips from the neckline down the shoulder to the wrists.

"That boy you were talking to," Takuya said. "You made friends with him?"

Kouichi looked suddenly shifty. "Sort of. You guys better change quick, we're reaching soon. Where were you guys anyway?"

Zoe took her uniform to the toilet to change, while the boys changed in the compartment. Since there wasn't room, Kouichi waited outside with Kouji and Takuya while JP and Tommy changed, then Kouji and Takuya went in while JP and Tommy waited outside. A voice announced instructions to leave their luggage on the train, which they nearly didn't hear because Takuya's trunk nearly fell on his head when he was struggling to put his Muggle clothes back inside without taking it down from the luggage rack.

They joined the crowd of students in the corridor, jostling to get off the train. Many directed stares in their directions. Getting off the train, they walked into the Fire Academy students, who were also dressed in Japanese uniforms. Their uniforms were almost similar to theirs, except for a Chinese character emblazoned over the back and the right side near the bottom of the robes. Davis, wearing golden-beige robes with the Chinese character for fire – _huo_ – on his robes, waved to them, grinning. Takuya waved back.

Not sure about where to go, they followed the other Hogwarts students as they left the station. Where they were going was soon obvious as about a hundred carriages came into view.

"Wow." Kouichi stopped in his tracks. "Threstrals."

"What _what_?" Takuya asked, puzzled. He stared at Kouichi.

"Magical creatures that are only visible to those who have seen death," Kouichi explained. He shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry, I forgot that only Darkness students learn about these things."

"So what do they look like?" JP asked. He, like the rest in the group, knew that Kouichi had almost died going to the Digiworld years ago, and he had also been present when his grandmother died.

"Big… With wings… No skin…"

"No skin?" Takuya repeated, puzzled. "Then, what makes up their bodies?"

"Bones," Kouichi replied. He smiled slightly. "Even without the death part, you won't want to see how they look like. Nightmare stuff, you know?"

They got into a carriage. The doors shut and they took off, flying through the air smoothly.

&&&&

Kouji kept staring at Kouichi. The feeling that he was hiding something kept nagging at him. Back on the train he had tapped into his Legilimency skills and tried to find out what he was thinking, but was blocked by a strong mental barrier of Occlumency. Knowing that Kouichi was a better Occlumens than he was, he gave up. In their school, such skills were normally taught early, unlike in the West where students hardly ever learnt it at all. He still painfully remembered how he and Kouichi used to practise on each other, until Kouji tried and failed to break through Kouichi's barrier eleven times in a row.

Kouichi was tightly holding on to a small bag he kept over his shoulders. Kouji frowned as he looked at the bag, but did not pose any questions. As the others chatted happily in excitement, he kept staring at Kouichi, trying not to look suspicious but wondering what he was keeping secret, while Kouichi fixedly stared out the window.

The carriage landed smoothly in front of the great Hogwarts castle. They got out, only to be greeted by a tall, stern-looking woman they recognised to be Professor McGonagall. The Fire Academy students were already gathered close behind her. They still carried their bags over their shoulders.

"Good evening. I hope you had a pleasant journey," she said stiffly. "Now, please follow me."

The group fell silent as she led them to into an enormous hallway. Students were passing through into what appeared to be a greater hall than the first. She brought them into a small room nearby.

"Now, in a while, you will be Sorted, after the first-years," she explained, looking less strict. "The whole school will be watching, so please be on your best behaviour. Like how you are sorted into your elements back in Japan, here in Hogwarts you will be sorted into either of the four houses, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin.

"However, as you are exchange students, the main aim of the trip is to let you mix around with Hogwarts students and embrace the cultural difference. So, instead of sorting you into a house, which is the usual practice, you will be sorted into _two_ houses each. You will spend half the schooling year, that is, five months, in one house, and the other half in the other house."

She looked over them. "Please get ready. I will come and fetch you when the first-years are sorted." She left.

"Hope we all get into the same house," Takuya said jubilantly.

"I don't think we will," JP said. "Those students we met explained the house, remember? We're not even in the same elements…"

They looked over at the Fire Academy group. Now that they noticed, not all of them were from different elements. Davis was a Fire element, both Kari and TK were Light, Yolei was Wind, Cody was Earth, and Ken was Darkness.

"I thought we were representing our elements," Tommy whispered. "Why are both Kari and TK Light? Don't they have Water?"

Not long later, Professor McGonagall came back with them. With the Fire Academy students leading, they walked into a huge hall beyond anything they had ever seen. Used to the drab temple and shrines back in Japan, they were surprised to see the elegance. The ceiling, obviously enchanted, was a dark blue, with drifting clouds and twinkling stars. Four long tables, seated with students, were arranged evenly in the hall. Students at one table wore different colours from the other table, mirroring the colours of the banners that hung above each of the tables.

A ragged old hat was lying on a small stool at the front, between the students and the higher table meant for teachers. Dumbledore was standing behind the teachers' table, in the middle. The students at their tables stared at them. Some who had already seen them earlier nudged their friends.

"This year, we are pleased to have several exchange students from Japan with us. I hope you will make them feel most welcome during their stay here," Dumbledore announced. "In Japan, they too are sorted, but according to their elements, which mirror their personalities. The elements, Fire, Light, Wind, Earth, Water and Darkness, all symbolise something important to them, like the four houses here to us.

"Like the first-year students, they will also be sorted, but into _two_ houses instead of one." There was a murmur among the students at this statement. "This is to ensure that they are able to mix among you as much as possible." He smiled. "They will be in one house for half of the school year, and another for the other half. Now, as there is nothing else to explain…"

"The main element is… Fire!" Dumbledore announced to the school. "People of this element are known as brash, temperamental, but friendly and brave. First… Kanbara, Takuya."

Takuya looked surprised to be the first, but stepped up to the stool. He put on the Sorting Hat, and sat down. A few seconds later, the Hat announced:

"Gryffindor and Hufflepuff!"

"Chose whichever house you want to go in first," Professor McGonagall said to him. "You can request for a change to the other house if you are not satisfied or used to it yet later."

Takuya identified the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables, and then noticed the group they had met earlier at the Gryffindor table. With a grin to the others, he went over to the Gryffindor table and sat down with them.

"Next, Fire Element Motomiya, Davis."

Davis was sorted into Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. He joined the Gryffindor table next to Takuya.

"Second element – Light. Known as pure and uncorrupt. Light elements normally are kind and good to friends. First, Minamoto Kouji."

Kouji was sorted into Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. He joined the Gryffindor table.

"Takaishi Takeru."

TK was also sorted into Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, also joining the Gryffindor table with the others.

"Tamiya Kari."

Kari got the same houses and too joined the Gryffindor table.

"The Wind element is classified as caring, gentle and on the whole, friendly and kind to friends and sometimes even enemies," Dumbledore went on.

Kouichi's eyes met Kouji's. They stared at each other for a while, until after both Yolei and Zoe were sorted into the same houses, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Both joined the Hufflepuff table.

"Earth elements are known as down-to-earth and serious, and are always conscious of other people's feelings," Dumbledore's voice interrupted Kouichi's thought. Kouichi drew his attention away, knowing that the Darkness element would be saved for last, as the West was quite touchy with 'Dark' stuff, especially now that You-Know-Who was back. And from their names, Kouichi would probably be the last one.

He vaguely watched Cody was sorted into Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Cody went to the Hufflepuff table and sat down with the girls.

"The element of Water," Dumbledore's voice broke through Kouichi's thoughts again. "Fluid and flexible, and can easily adapt to change."

Tommy went into Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. He hesitated for a while before angling towards the Hufflepuff table, sitting down next to Cody.

Kouichi's eyes wandered the Great Hall. Suddenly he caught sight of a familiar face at the Slytherin table. The boy was staring at him. He stared back.

"Finally, the element of Darkness."

As expected, there were many loud murmurs throughout the hall. Everyone stared at the remaining two students in front.

"Those of the Darkness element," Dumbledore said, raising his voice slightly, for even he was aware of how the students felt, "are normally quiet, but possess an inner strength they can use to their advantage. They are very rare; those with the ability to harness their powers are even rarer. First, Ichijouji, Ken."

The Hat shouted out its decisions: Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Kouichi saw Ken hesitate for a while, before walking to the Slytherin table.

"Finally, Kimura Kouichi."

Kouichi walked up to the stool and sat down, distinctly aware that more and more people were staring at him. He wished they wouldn't. Suddenly a small voice buzzed in his ear.

"Eh? What's this? This is odd… Never seen anything like this before. You've got a mixture of everything, it's so hard to evaluate you this way. Nothing like this before…"

What? Kouichi thought, starting to feel nervous. He didn't know how long he sat there, but finally the Hat announced its decisions.

"Gryffindor and Slytherin!"

The entire hall was filled with shouts of shock.

* * *

**Please review and tell me what you think. It's appreciated.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Heya all, sorry about the late update. **

* * *

Just as the Sorting Hat announced its decision, the Great Hall erupted into angry and shocked hisses. Never ever in history had someone been connected to both Gryffindor and Slytherin at once. It was like a historical impossibility. Yet this Japanese boy had just been Sorted into both the rivalling houses.

Kouichi, startled by the outbreak of shocked muttering, stood up and handed the ragged Sorting Hat back to Professor McGonagall, who looked so surprised that her eyes were wide. Uncertainly, he made for the Gryffindor table, where Kouji was, but then suddenly caught sight of the blond boy seated at a table further along the hall.

Then, much to Kouji's surprise, Kouichi walked right past the Gryffindor table and went up to the Slytherin table.

"Er… Is there anyone sitting here?" Kouichi asked, pausing at the empty spot on the bench directly opposite the blond boy.

Draco Malfoy shook his head with a smirk. "Congratulations."

Kouichi sat down, staring at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

One tiny – okay, not so tiny – fact that Kouichi had kept a secret from Kouji was about his part-time job in the Dark items shop. One day, he had been instructed to attend to some English customers who were coming, although it wasn't part of his job. Since it meant extra pay, he had willingly taken up the duty. The customers had been Draco Malfoy and his father. He had befriended Malfoy then, and they had kept in touch ever since they met a year ago.

Dumbledore was saying something now, and Kouichi turned his attention to him. He didn't really understand the odd reaction of the students when Dumbledore introduced the new Potions teacher, Professor Slughorn, and the announcement that Professor Snape would be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts. Soon the feast started, and there was a clinking of forks and knives over the hall as the students started on the food, which magically appeared on the plates.

"Your brother's staring at you," Draco commented coolly.

Kouichi turned to look at the Gryffindor table over his shoulder. He caught Kouji staring at him, and for some reason felt uneasy. He quickly turned away, although he sensed Kouji staring at him long after he looked away.

Japanese food was served alongside the normal Western food on the tables. Most of the students tentatively tried out the foreign foods. Kouichi half-heartedly listened to their reactions, feeling mildly amused. Ken Ichijouji, who was sitting a few seats across the table, was busy with his bag, which lay partially open at his feet. Kouichi stared at him, feeling that something was amiss, until he was completely unaware that Ken was soon staring back at him.

"Uh… Hi," Kouichi said uncertainly. "I'm Kouichi Kimura."

Ken relaxed slightly, although he continued to stare suspiciously at Kouichi for some reason. "Hi. We haven't exactly met before, have we? I'm Ken, Ichijouji."

Kouichi offered a small smile, quite unsure about how to conduct a conversation with someone he didn't really trust and also appeared to distrust him. "Er… I guess we'll have to become friends, if we're the only ones here…" His voice trailed off lamely.

"Yeah, I guess." Ken stared some more at him before relenting and looking away.

Draco snorted. "You two are weird."

"Was that obvious?"

"Are you that lame?"

"Okay, okay…"

At the Gryffindor table, things were going far more smoothly. Takuya and Davis, who had achieved instant rapport with each other, were excitedly describing in detail to Harry, Ron and Hermione about the different forms of the Japanese magical education system.

"We actually go to Muggle school as well, in the day, and study magic in the evenings. The Ministry wants us to study Muggle fields as well, for the students to be more advanced, but it's interesting enough. In fact, all the elements study different forms of magic," Takuya was explaining enthusiastically. "Basically, everyone takes four subjects. Three are core subjects, and the fourth is an elemental subject."

"You sure do sound cheerful explaining that, considering how much you hate school," Kouji commented dryly.

"The three core subjects are Basic Magic, History and Magical Defence," Takuya continued, ignoring Kouji completely. "I hate History, Magical Defence is exciting, but Basic Magic is the real killer, it's the toughest subject."

"You mean like the basics?" Ron asked with a frown. "How can that be tough?"

"It's like a combination of the Western subjects Transfiguration, Charms and more advanced levels of magic," TK interjected. "_Basic_ Magic… As if."

"Then there's the elemental subjects," Davis explained, picking up where Takuya had left. "The Fire elements study Active Magic, which is pretty much like Duelling and stuff."

"Duelling is a subject?" Harry asked incredulously. "That must be fun."

"Yeah," Davis said with a grin. "And the Light elements study Holy Studies-"

"_Sacred_ Studies, Davis," Kari corrected him.

"Oh, yeah, Sacred Studies," Davis said sheepishly. "Mostly about shrines and boring stuff."

"It's not boring, Davis," TK put in. "Just because you consider fun as something when you aren't sitting down and doing something serious…"

"Active Magic _is_ serious!"

"But the most mysterious elemental subject is the one that the Darkness elements study," Takuya said with a grin.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, interested.

Before Kouji, TK or Kari could do more than glance up, both Takuya and Davis happily dug the Japanese students – or more accurately, the Darkness elements – into a deep hole.

"The Dark Arts!"

There was a sudden lull in the conversation around them. The other students who had been involved in their own conversation and only half-listening to the Japanese students also turned around and gave them startled looks. Harry stared suspiciously at them, while Ron surreptitiously glanced over to the Slytherin table to get a look at the Darkness element students sitting there.

Then both Kouji and TK kicked Takuya and Davis under the table. Both gave muffled yelps and slowly realised what they had done with a glare from Kari.

"Oops," Davis muttered quietly.

"Er… I did say it was mysterious," Takuya said hastily, shoving food into his mouth. "No one knows for sure what exactly they study, and they're the only ones who aren't allowed to talk about their elemental subject, so… er… like I said, no one knows exactly what they study."

"But they're definitely taught to control themselves," Davis added, determined to diffuse the situation.

"Oh… Okay," Hermione said, but with a guarded tone. Slowly, the conversations around them resumed, although the Japanese students were gifted with more odd looks than ever.

"Way to go, Davis," TK hissed.

"Sorry," Davis muttered. "Gosh, I feel like a complete jerk."

"Well, that's what you are."

"Hey!"

Kouji glared at Takuya. "What was that for anyway?"

"It was a slip of the tongue!" Takuya defended himself. "How do I know the West is so touchy about it? For us it's perfectly normal!"

"Kimaru-san did warn us," Kouji reminded him in irritation. "Since Voldemort came back-"

There was a loud clatter as Ron dropped his fork. "You said the name!" he exclaimed. "Aren't you all scared at all?"

"Of what?" Kouji asked. "A name?"

"No one says his name," Ron said firmly.

"Except for me," Harry put in even more firmly with an irritated glare at Ron. He paused, taking a sip from his goblet. "And except for Dumbledore, and quite a number of other people."

Ron sighed as though there was no explaining the situation. "Oh, well. It's perfectly okay for you and Dumbledore, you've faced him before, but for others the name itself creates _fear_."

"That's pretty eloquent, Ron," Hermione said with a grin. "I guess in the East you don't mind it so much." She paused. "Just out of curiosity, what exactly did you mean earlier about the Darkness elements studying the Dark Arts?"

She sounded sincere, so Kouji decided that it would be fine telling her a little. Of course, Kouichi had been forbidden to talk about what he had learnt, but the twins had found a way around it. Using Legilimency, Kouichi had revealed quite a lot to Kouji about the subject. That way, he hadn't spoken about it, and Kouji got to know about the subject.

"Some curses and jinxes," Kouji said lightly, making sure that he sounded vague. "Mostly the ones that aren't commonly used. The Darkness elements are supposed to be able to perform them better than other elements."

"Oh," Hermione said, sounding slightly disappointed at the lack of detail. "But it sounds interesting, though. If we ever need to defend ourselves, the enemy will never expect us to use Dark Arts."

Harry stared at her as she made that comment, but did not say anything. He went back to his plate, although the look on his face had changed slightly, taking on a more intense look.

The rest of the meal continued cheerfully, and finally, when all the food had disappeared and there was a general air of sleepiness among the students, Dumbledore dismissed them off to bed.

&&&&

Kouichi saw that he was to share a dorm with Ken, a boy named Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy and his two close friends, Crabbe and Goyle. Still quite aware of the fact that Ken looked rather guarded around him, and of the fact that he just knew that Ken was hiding something from him, made the situation rather tense. Not that it really mattered now, Kouichi pushed the box containing his D-Tector under his pillow, had second thoughts, pulled it out again, and stuffed it into the pillowcase.

Draco Malfoy had the bed right next to his. Draco stared at Kouichi for a while. "What's the matter with you?" he asked at last.

"Nothing," Kouichi said as calmly as he could. Across the room, he saw that the thick curtains around Ken's bed were already pulled shut, although Ken was busy with his bags at the foot of his bed. He frowned, quite certain that Ken was hiding something, but then again, who was he to talk? He sighed a little as he glanced at his pillow.

"Well, go to sleep early. I don't want to wake you up in the morning if you oversleep,' Draco said with a slight smirk. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Kouichi glanced at his watch. It was near to eleven, but he was perfectly awake. As usual, the night only served to make him feel more alert, as his element _was_ Darkness. He went over to his unpacked bags and extracted a book, considering reading it by wand-light until he felt tired, which was his norm. He looked over to Ken, who looked as alert as he did. Ken shrugged, and climbed into bed, disappearing out of sight.

Looking around, Kouichi guessed that Draco was of the Darkness element as well, since he didn't seem to be that sleepy. In fact, Kouichi noticed that Draco was fidgeting slightly in bed. Thinking no more about it, he pulled the curtains shut around his bed and settled down to read.

&&&&

Meanwhile, Kouji, Takuya, Davis and TK were to share a dorm. Takuya and Davis remained chatting with each other cheerfully although both looked sleepy. Kouji and TK fell asleep as soon as they lay down, but Takuya contentedly lay on his front and thinking happily about his day. Time passed, and just as he was drifting off to sleep, he heard soft voices chattering excitedly.

"Oh boy, that food was sure delicious!"

"Shut up, you're going to wake them up!"

"They're sleeping, even if they aren't, they'll probably think that they're dreaming."

Takuya sat up, listening carefully through the curtains around his bed. The voices disappeared, as though the speakers had gone down the stairs to the common room. Frowning slightly, he lay back down and was soon asleep.

&&&&

Harry lay awake in bed for a long time, thinking hard. During the summer, he had wondered a lot about what the new school year would bring, with Lord Voldemort's return finally agreed to by the stupid Ministry. He had anticipated a lot of extra security around the castle, hoped that he would actually be allowed to help defeat the Dark Lord and guessed that the whole year would be hard-pressed to be described as 'normal'. But what he had not even anticipated was the arrival of the Japanese exchange students.

He thought back to the conversation with some of them during the feast. Takuya and Davis were outgoing and bright, and he knew that it would be easy liking them. Kouji was quiet most of the time, but he could tell that Kouji was generally a serious person, a balance to Takuya's wild side. TK and Kari were less direct that Takuya and Davis, and probably would make good friends.

But about Kouji's twin brother…

He remembered their brief meeting in the Leaky Cauldron. He had thought that Kouichi was okay, a little shy and reserved but he had never thought of him as a Slytherin. But the Sorting Hat had easily placed Kouichi in both Slytherin and Gryffindor, something that he considered a world record. The other boy who had been placed in Slytherin, Ken, seemed equally mysterious as well, but Ron had earlier mentioned in full awe that Ken Ichijouji was a famous prodigy in the East, not only having excelled in Muggle activities but also in magic and Quidditch as well. Ron had finally asked Davis about him, and Davis had confirmed it, although with a certain odd look on his face that stopped any more inquiries.

Then he remembered what Hermione had said about your enemies not expecting you to use Dark Magic in duels. Well, he supposed that _his_ enemies definitely wouldn't expect him to pull off any successful Unforgivable Curses – he suddenly remembered, with a sad pang, that he had tried to do so when fighting Bellatrix at the Ministry the previous year in his fury – and he supposed that even if he wanted to, he probably wouldn't be advanced enough. Hermione had already told him and Ron in the train about how advanced Japanese students were.

In the end, he tired himself out thinking and fell asleep.

&&&&

**Can't guarantee when the next update will be. Just reminding everyone, I'm a student. **

**Ken**


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm back.. Finally!**

&&&&

Lord Voldemort was furious.

"That old fool," he murmured to himself. His slit eyes were red and flashing dangerously. He raised his wand, ready to do some damage to his surroundings, but stopped himself just in time. No, it would be better if…

He smiled to himself as he thought. There was no way an old man and a magical school could stop him from getting what he wanted.

"If that's how you want to play the game, Albus Dumbledore…"

Voldemort twirled his wand in intricate patterns in the air, murmuring as he did so. Smoky trails appeared from the tip of his wand, slowly becoming more solid, shaping and moulding itself into a solid form…

"You can be sure that I'll be fast to make my own move…"

&&&&

"Oy, wake up."

Takuya groaned sleepily as someone wrenched open the curtains around his bed. He muttered a few swear words to himself. The someone turned out to be Kouji, who casually threw a pillow at him. Somehow, when the normally placid Kouji acted this way (he was more relaxed ever since he got closer to Kouichi) it never seemed ridiculous or childish. But when Takuya was the one doing those sort of things, Zoe would instantly be after his blood for 'mortally embarrasing her.'

"You know, a simple 'Good morning' would do," Takuya muttered blearily.

"Fine. Good morning. Happy?"

Takuya shook his head. "Too late. Where is this place? Are we back in the digi-" He never finished his sentence, as something white flashed across his face. Takuya struggled for a while before realising that Kouji was smothering him with a pillow, a frown on his face.

"With you shooting your mouth off when you're not thinking, it's a miracle no one else has found out," Kouji hissed before letting Takuya go.

"Oh gosh! I'm sorry, it nearly slipped out!" Takuya put a hand to his mouth as he realised that he had almost blurted out the word 'digiworld.' He quickly remembered where he was.

"Oh, that's it! I'm in Hogwarts! We're in Hogwarts!"

"Glad you noticed," Kouji said drily. "Hurry up, will you? I don't want to be late on the first day."

"Fine! Fine!" Takuya jumped out of bed in a huff, surprising TK and Davis who were across the dorm bickering slightly as they got ready. Kouji sighed, wondering how on earth they were going to get through an entire year here.

&&&&

Kouichi finished adjusting his new uniform and stared at himself in the mirror. His hair was getting long, but at least it wasn't as long as Kouji's. He impulsively bunched it up into a ponytail, but didn't like how it looked. His hair was so unlike his twin's, wild and messy. Kouji had been the one who had encouraged him to let his hair grow out…

"Hey."

Kouichi turned to see Draco Malfoy coming towards him. Draco was lazily running his hand through his hair, apparently not bothering to comb it properly.

"Can you find your way up to the Great Hall?" Draco questioned edgily.

Kouichi smiled. "I'm sure I can."

Draco shrugged. "Okay then." He looked as if he wanted to say something else, but didn't. "See you at breakfast. Don't be late."

"Er… Okay then."

Kouichi stared as Draco left the dorm with Crabbe and Goyle. He suspected something amiss. Ken was fully dressed, rechecking the contents of his bag with an anxious look on his face. Blaise was yawning as he carelessly threw in several rolls of parchment into his bag. He considered asking Blaise if anyone would be coming in to clean up the place, but thought the better of it.

Ken slung a bag over his shoulder, took up yet another, and quickly walked out. Kouichi stared after him, wondering for what seemed like the thousandth time what was the matter with him. He smiled slightly as he realised what Ken's attitude reminded him of – Kouji's apparently indifferent and detached attitude. Should be an interesting year here.

He was stopped smiling when he reached under his pillow and retrieved the box containing his D-Tector. He had been puzzling over it the previous night until the image of the device even appeared in his dreams, but was still unable to figure out why it had returned to him. Did it mean the Digiworld was in danger? He had considered telling Kouji, but it would mean admitting he worked in a Dark objects shop, something Kouji would disapprove of. He could very well figure this out himself; after all, he was a former Legendary Warrior, wasn't he?

"Coming?"

Blaise was standing at the door. Kouichi nodded.

"Sure."

Stuffing the box back under the pillow, Kouichi grabbed his bag and hurried out after Blaise.

&&&&

The Japanese exchange students received their timetables after breakfast, from the Heads of the Houses. The subjects they were taking were nearly the same as the ones they had been studying back in Japan. The Japanese subject, Basic Magic, was taken over by Transfiguration and Charms; then there were Defence Against the Dark Arts and Potions, and a subject specially designed for them – Ancient Magic and Mythology. Their standard had been adjusted, so they would be taking the classes with other students their own age.

Kouji examined his timetable. The first subject was Potions, which meant that he would be meeting Kouichi. Good, he thought grimly, feeling rather annoyed that Kouichi hadn't explained anything to him about his recent odd behaviour. Kouichi had been more secretive than usual lately, and it was bothering him that Kouichi wasn't telling him stuff. And he knew that Kouichi could be too intense in his thoughts until it was destructive.

"Hey! Why so glum, dude?" Takuya pounced on him from the back, knocking Kouji to his feet. "Come on, look happier, it's the first day here!"

"You know, that's the first time you look so happy about school," Kouji said irritatably. Takuya still had yet a lot to learn about tact. He got up, rubbing his knee. "If you get me injured I swear I will personally make sure that you suffer for it."

Takuya raised his eyebrows. "Wow, wow, wow… Seriously, Kouji, you need to lighten up a bit. It won't hurt to at least look happy, you know. Did you know that since this morning you've got this look on your face that practically screams out 'murder'?"

Kouji scowled. "Well then I guess that's your cue to leave me alone. Not very good at understanding signals, are you, Takuya?"

"What's up with him?" Takuya wondered aloud, as Kouji snatched up his books and stalked off after the other Gryffindor students. He scratched his head through his cap. "Weird as usual I guess…"

"You know, I think he's a bit upset over something," TK observed from opposite the table, standing up and rearranging the books in his bag. "I have to say that I think you were a bit tactless, knocking him over like that."

"Tactless? Me?" Takuya looked as if he had never heard the word being associated with him before. "At any rate, Kouji has always been like that, he'll never be cheerful even if he won a trillion dollars in a lottery. I've known him for about five years already, at up till now he has yet to curse me for knocking him over." He adjusted his cap indecisively.

"Hey guys." Zoe appeared at the Gryffindor table, followed by the other Japanese exchange students who weren't in Gryffindor – J.P, Tommy, Cody and Yolei. "What's up with Kouji? He bumped into me earlier but didn't even seem to notice me."

"What's up with him?" Takuya rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. "_Nothing's_ up, you know that if Kouji ever acts that way he's being _normal_…" He shrugged. "So, what classes do you have?"

"Same as yours, right?" Zoe sat down on the table. "We're with the other sixth-years… Tommy and Cody's going to be with the fourth-years, and JP and Yolei with the seventh-years."

"Professor Sprout told us that our results in the subjects we're taking here will give us added credit for the graduation exams," J.P said with a grin. "Cool, eh? And the credit will be a lot more than what we can expect back in Japan."

"Man, wish I was in final year," Takuya said longingly. "Imagine… Less work, but more to gain…"

"Dream on," Zoe said, slapping him on the back as she got up. "Want to go for Potions now?"

"Isn't Potions an elemental subject for the Water element students?" Takuya picked up his schoolbag, then stuffed the leftovers of his breakfast into his mouth.

Zoe stared at him in disgust. "Yeah… Which means that you'll have a lot to learn. Anyway everyone's got the simplest basics from Basic Magic, remember?"

"Well, yeah, I think there was a chapter on that…" Takuya frowned a little. "At least I _think_. Where's the class, anyway?"

"Down in the dungeons," Davis said helpfully. "Professor McGonagall told us earlier, remember?"

"No, I don't," Takuya said, still frowning. "So… Where's the dungeons?"

"Er…"

T.K sighed. "Professor McGonagall mentioned that to us too, remember? She already gave us the directions, come on… We don't want to be late for our very first class."

"No, I don't remember," Takuya and Davis said simultaneously.

"Hopeless," Zoe muttered.

T.K and Kari led the way down to the dungeons, where the rest of the class were waiting outside the classroom door. Most of the Hogwarts students fell silent when they appeared. Kouji was leaning against the wall, far along the corridor from the other students, his eyes narrowed and a closed expression on his face.

Takuya went up to Kouji, putting on an exaggerated look of innocent childishness on his face. "What's wrong with you? Car ran over your dog?"

Kouji glared at him, before muttering something and turning away. Takuya stared intensely at him. "Sorry, didn't get that… Hey, hang on…" Takuya frowned. _Could have sworn that he said 'Kouichi.' Kouichi? Where is he anyway?_

He looked around, and instantly got his answer. And his jaw dropped…

&&&&

Kouichi was starting to feel worried about Kouji. He had heard Takuya complaining about Kouji's attitude that morning, and he had a bad feeling that he was the one at fault. _Have to go talk to him later_, he thought, stealing a glance at his twin. Kouji was still sulking away by himself, and this time Takuya was dancing around him – _he better watch out_, Kouichi thought, sighing inwardly. However, at the moment, he was involved in a more troubling matter…

"So, Kimura, why don't you just show them what you can do?" the sixth-year Slytherin boy said. "Remember, you're a Slytherin now, it doesn't matter what Houses your Japanese friends are in.

"Don't involve him in this, this is just between us, Malfoy," Harry Potter snarled. "Don't drag him into what nonsense you're doing with your _beloved_ Dark Lord…"

"That's a very dangerous accusation to make, Potter," Draco said quietly. "Wouldn't want to get into trouble for that, would you? You and all the blood traitors and Mudbloods.."

"Take that back!" Harry pulled out his wand. "Right now I don't give a damn about the rules, I just know you're up to something fishy, and I'll make sure I'll find out!"

"Well then, you're welcome to find out what you can." Draco sneered, pulling out his own wand, his eyes flashing. "I can assure you that you won't get very far."

"Come on, stop it." Kouichi grabbed Draco's arm, forcing him to lower his wand. "It's not worth it getting into trouble over a small matter…"

"It's not a small matter! HE PUT MY FATHER IN AZKABAN!"

"Well, that's where he deserves to be," Harry growled angrily. "And that's where I'm going to make sure you end up, Malfoy!"

Malfoy lunged madly at Harry, and the two of them fell to the floor, grappling with each other, wands forgotten. Everyone around them started shouting, and Kouichi bent down to try to pry them apart. In the end he managed to pull Malfoy away, but both Malfoy and Harry had such livid looks on their faces that no one else dared to try to stop them.

"Now, now, what's all this about?"

The Potions teacher came out of the classroom, frowning very slightly at the commotion. Slughorn keenly observed the students, and guessing what happened, he shook his head. Apparently he did not want to get involved in anything, so he faked a very false look of cheerfulness on his face. "So, now, what are you all waiting for? Your first Potions class of the year! Come on in!"

Kouichi grabbed hold of Malfoy's arm and steered him into the front seat, where he figured he wouldn't dare to do anything when being observed by a teacher. Glancing back to check on Harry, he almost immediately caught his twin's dark intense eyes and felt a pang of guilt at the way he was ignoring Kouji. Kouji noticed him looking, and quickly looked away. Kouichi watched as Kouji, Takuya settled at one table together with the three Gryffindors, while Zoe, Kari, TK and Ken took the table right next to his. Kouichi offered Zoe a small, rather sheepish smile which she returned with a puzzled look.

"So now!" Slughorn clapped his hands together, looking quite bouncy and excited. "So now! This will be the first class for our Japanese guests, and I hope that you will enjoy yourself here while having a taste of Western education! And now, for our first lesson, I want something special… Turn to your books, page hundred and thirty one, and split up into groups of two! The group who manages to make the best attempt at the Healing Solution will win a special prize!"

In other circumstances, Kouichi would have partnered Kouji, but since he noticed that Draco was sullenly making no movement while the other students bustled around finding their partners, he quietly assumed that he would just partner the silent boy. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Kouji partnering Takuya at a table. _Well, at least Takuya can manage him…_

Kouichi consulted the page. The Healing Solution was incredibly hard to make, but its uses were equally remarkable – useful for curing almost every single kind of injury, sickness, poison and restoring energy. He scanned through the list of the ingredients, before realising that Draco was still glaring fixedly at the table, not doing anything at all.

"Um… Draco?"

Draco slammed a fist on the table. "I'll kill him," he muttered. Then, as if with a great effort, he looked up at Kouichi. "What do we need?"

"Huh?"

"What ingredients do we need?"

"Oh… Um… Paste of pine leaves… Essence of dragon blood-"

"Fine, I'll get the first… six ingredients first, you get the last six later, set up the cauldron first, 'kay? And hurry up, won't up?"

Kouichi stared as Draco sprang up and joined the crowd of students at the ingredients cupboard. He sighed, guessing that Kouji wasn't the only one feeling agitated that morning. Kouichi took out the cauldron and pointed his wand at the bottom. A moment later, a black fog surrounded the base of the cauldron, heating up the cauldron as effectively as a real fire would.

Draco returned with a handful of leaves and various vials of coloured fluid. He stared at the black mist. "What's that? Something that you Japs do with potions?"

"It's called Black Mist." Kouichi consulted his book again. He lowered his voice. "Well, it's a bit of Dark Magic but it's better for brewing potions meant for healing."

"If you say so…" Malfoy stared suspiciously at Kouichi for a while, then relented. "What do we do first?"

"Boil the essence of dragon blood until it turns colourless, then add in paste of five sprigs of pine leaves, one spoonful at a time…"

"Here's the blood," Draco interrupted, handing Kouichi a jar of bright yellow fluid that was bubbling gently. "I'll do the paste."

Kouichi quickly obeyed, guessing that Draco was feeling really agitated at the moment; he certainly was acting oddly and it was better to just follow whatever Draco said. Pouring the yellow essence into the cauldron, he stared at the surface of the bubbling liquid…

"Ouch!"

Draco stared at him. Kouichi quickly recovered, blinking his eyes.

"Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh… Yeah, I'm okay, sorry about that…"

"Okay." Draco resumed his pounding of the leaves with force that was quite unnecessary. Kouichi stared at him, but quickly shifted his attention back to the slowly boiling essence.

_What was that?_ Kouichi rubbed the back of his head. Just then, he had felt something hard hit side of his head, and momentarily he had been blinded by a bright, white light. Then, he had seen something familiar in a white fog, something that he hadn't seen in five years. He had been so shocked that he had just shouted out without thinking. As he stirred the bubbling essence in the cauldron, his thoughts drifted away.

_I know it's crazy, but I'm positive… I saw Lowemon…_

&&&&

_The Forbidden Forest_.

Kouichi stared at the dark trees. Something about them already seemed quite forbidden enough. Maybe it was just the darkness, or the ominous look of the tall, silently swaying trees. Yet there was something about the forest that seemed to attract him…

It was lunchtime. No one would miss him… Except maybe for his twin brother, Takuya and Draco…

As if in a dream, Kouichi made for the forest. There was no one around, so no one stopped him as he approached the trees. He could see a narrow dirt path, but he decided not to follow it. There was just something so remarkably interesting about the forest… Taking out his wand, he blasted some bushes down with a hard gust of wind. Using the same spell, he made his way through the trees easily enough.

The trees grew thickly together, and soon he was in near total darkness. He blinked once, and instantly he could see the clear outlines of the shrubs around him, as though something bright was illuminating the forest – it was something that every Darkness element student was able to do. He walked in a bit more, only vaguely aware that he was breaking the rules.

Something rustled behind him, making him start. He turned around on the spot, and his vision combined with his heightened senses in the dark told him that there was someone just a few metres away. He frowned, and slowly made his way towards the figure…

"Draco?"

Draco Malfoy jumped up, staring at Kouichi. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I could be asking you that too," Kouichi said, picking his way towards the agitated boy. "Funny place to meditate, if you ask me."

"I'm not…" Draco glared at him. "Is wandering about in forests your hobby?"

"No, but it's my nature." Kouichi gestured around him. "It's natural for students of the Darkness element to be attracted to the dark. We're trained to survive comfortably in these conditions and we can adapt to the darkness."

"Whatever you say." Draco settled back on the boulder he had been sitting on. Kouichi sat down next to him, and for a few minutes, the two of them sat there in silence. Kouichi nudged a stone at his feet, uncovering a particularly large beetle with bright green stripes. _Poisonous._The beetle waved its feelers about, but the next moment, was flattened when Kouichi smashed it with the stone.

Draco stared at him. "What was that for?"

"It's poisonous."

"Fine. Just thought that you were…"

"Cruel?"

"I guess…"

"'Kay…" Kouichi got up. "Do you want me to leave? I think I'm bothering you…"

"No!"

"What?"

Draco looked slightly embarrassed. "I mean, no, you aren't bothering me… You can stay if you want."

Feeling more relieved, Kouichi sat back down. Suddenly he was smiling to himself, and he quickly looked down to the forest floor.

&&&&

**Kind of a lame ending, I know... I'm out of ideas...**

**R&R**

**Ken**


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks to TrialAndError123456 for pointing out the mistake in the previous chapter. It's corrected... I think**

**&&&&**

"So, would the two of you mind explaining what on earth you were doing in the middle of the Forbidden Forest?"

Kouichi guiltily looked away from Professor McGonagall. Now he understood why other students said she must never be angered. She looked as if she was she was a bull preparing to charge at a matador. He sat up straighter in his seat, and chanced a glance at Draco. He was sitting in the chair beside his, looking defiantly at the floor.

"Mr Malfoy, as a sixth-year student I expected that you would fully understand that the Forest is banned to all students unless accompanied by a teacher for a valid reason! Even more shocking, you have led one of our Japanese exchange students into danger, and yet you refuse to say a single word as to why the two of you can be loitering about in the Forest!"

Kouichi quickly spoke up. "It wasn't his fault; I wandered into the Forest myself and met him there by accident…"

Kouichi and Draco had been sitting together for quite a long time – at first, Kouichi had fully intended to return to the castle after a while, but since Draco had made no signs he was leaving the place, so feeling worried, he had stayed on. The two of them had just sat together for about three or four hours, until the gametaker, Hagrid, found them while he was looking for a forest creature.

"And there I was looking fer that odd dragon creature I saw the other day, when I saw these two boys jus' sittin' there…" Hagrid explained.

Professor McGonagall looked sternly at Kouichi, but her tone was gentler when she spoke directly to him. "Kimura, I do not blame you fully as you are new here, and do not understand all the school rules, unlike our senior students here. I – ah, Professor Snape."

Professor Snape entered the office with a slight frown on his face. "You have two of my students, Minerva?"

Professor McGonagall nodded. "Severus. Hagrid found these two in the Forbidden Forest, and I have received reports from their teachers that they have missed all classes since lunch. So far, they have both refused to give me a reasonable excuse for their conduct."

"Don't worry, I will personally take them in hand." Snape's face was expressionless. He dismissed Kouichi, but ordered Draco to follow him to his office down in the dungeons. Kouichi stared after them, but when Snape continued to ignore him he shrugged to himself and went back to the common room, thinking about the time when he had first met Draco…

&&&&

"_Kimura? Kimura! KIMURA!"_

"_I'm here, Rengoku-san," Kouichi said hastily, quickly coming out from the back room where he had been washing his hands. His boss looked at him with a small frown. _

"_Where were you? You knew that they were coming today, weren't you?"_

"_I'm sorry," Kouichi apologised. "I was-"_

"_It doesn't matter," his boss said dismissively. "The English customers I told you about are here, in the front room. Go entertain them, they want someone who can speak English and help them locate a certain item."_

_Kouichi nodded, hastily straightening his worn Muggle clothing before going out to meet the customers. A tall, blond man with a pale face was sitting in the chair in the corner, accompanied by a teenaged boy of Kouichi's age, who could only be his son. Remembering the customs of the West, Kouichi extended a hand to the man. "Good morning, Mr Malfoy," he said calmly._

_Mr Malfoy shook his hand. "You must be Kimura. This is my son, Draco. We are searching for a certain object that might have passed through your shop, but I'll prefer to talk about something else first. Are you familiar with the recent magical history of England?"_

_Kouichi nodded. "Yes, but I don't know all the details; I only know what information that is available in the international newspapers."_

"_Then, have you heard of this boy called Harry Potter?"_

"_Harry Potter?" Kouichi noticed that Draco Malfoy had suddenly tensed up for some reason, and was now scowling heavily at the floor. "Yes, I have heard of him. Thirteen years, as a baby, ago he became famous for being the only one having survived the Killing Curse from a Dark wizard, right?"_

_A brief, odd expression suddenly came over Mr Malfoy's face. "Yes, you are correct. I was wondering, do you have any idea what could have caused the curse to backfire?"_

_Kouichi gave a start, caught with a question he had completely unexpected. He thought quickly. "Well, for one it could be the mistake of the spell caster's wand; if a wand is damaged or functioning improperly the spell casted would be less effective. Another reason could be that the person was being protected by some sort of charm that is more powerful than the normal Shield Charm. Or there could have been a disturbance in the magical balance around the area…"_

_Mr Malfoy nodded approvingly. "Good, good, I see that Rengoku was being truthful when he said that you are a top student of the Darkness element. I am here to look for a certain item, as well as someone who is knowledgeable enough… I am working for a certain wizard who is of a high status in my country, and he is looking for a Japanese to help him in his work. Of course, if you are interested, I will let you complete your schooling here first before arranging for you to come over to England to help my master."_

_Kouichi was taken aback. "Thanks for the offer, Mr Malfoy, I'll consider it, but I don't know if I can leave my family here."_

_Mr Malfoy shook his head. "It doesn't matter, my master is patient. He can wait. I will give you my address so you can contact me whenever you think that you are ready. And one more thing… My son is interested in the culture of Japanese wizards. Will you do us a favour and bring him around the city? I will pay you."_

&&&&

"Guys, look at this."

Hermione spread out her newspaper before Takuya and Davis, pointing at an article. The Japanese boys exchanged bewildered glances, before looking at what she was frantically pointing out to them. They both took in the bold headline of the articles and both gasped loudly at the same time. Within a few minutes, the paper was passed around all the Japanese students at the Gryffindor table, and all of them reacted in the same way:

_JAPAN PLAGUED BY DISASTER – YOU-KNOW-WHO'S INVOLVEMENT SUSPECTED_

_Late last night – early morning Japan time – several incidents occurred in a small suburban area just outside of Japan's mega city, Tokyo. Several Muggles and wizards were found dead of the dreaded Killing Curse that is the signature of You-Know-Who. The exact number of victims is uncomfirmed, but officials say that the number is at least eight. The Dark Mark had been set over the bodies, a sure sign that You-Know-Who was involved. England officials have met up with their Japanese counterparts, but are clueless as to why the Dark wizard has extended his network to such a far away country._

_In a separate but apparently linked incident, Oasis Gardens, a park popular for camping activities, has been found destroyed, wth trees uprooted and grass dug out. No one witnessed the destruction of the park, and the damage has since been repaired by magic. The public is advised not to panic, as this might have been the work of a group of pranksters taking advantage of the unstable situation in the magical community caused by You-Know-Who._

"Hey, Kari, Oasis Gardens," TK said suddenly, a strange look coming over his face. "Wasn't that where there's a gate – I mean, where I went with Tai and the others for the summer camp almost ten years ago?"

"You mean… Oh!" Kari's eyes suddenly became very round. "Oasis Gardens? But – I'm sure it's purely a coincidence. We can't do anything about it now anyway."

Davis stared at them. "What are you guys talking abou – Ow! What did you kick me for?"

The others along the table near them were staring suspiciously now. TK shot a warning look at Davis, then went on with his breakfast without another word.

&&&&

"You mean that's the place where you first went to the Digiworld?" Davis scratched his head. "Oh yeah, you guys told me that there's a gate there… I don't think that Oasis Gardens being destroyed was in any way related to the Digiworld."

"But I think it's worth checking out," Kari said slowly. "I think maybe I should write to Tai and ask him to check it out or something, it won't hurt, right now he's on his semester break from college."

The Fire Academy students were huddled in a corner, all having finally found time to gather during their lunch break. People stared at the group as they passed, but the Japanese students ignored them, continuing to talk in anxious whispers.

"You know, maybe we're all being a bit to paranoid." TK shrugged. "If there's anything wrong with the Digiworld, Izzy would be the first one to find out. You guys know that he spends more time at his computer studying the Digiworld than he spends time sleeping. Who knows, maybe Izzy might be checking out what happened right now as we speak."

"You've got a point there." Kari folded her arms. "But I'm still not really convinced that nothing is happening."

"But there's been nothing happening since we defeated the darkness," Yolei argued. "Besides, aren't there more Digidestinied out there? They should be the ones taking care of it, we have to trust other Digidestinied to be able to guard the Digiworld."

"You know, I've been thinking…" Ken said slowly, but his voice trailed off as he looked into the distance.

Davis shook his head with an exaggerated sigh. "Ken, since when _weren't _you thinking?"

Ken shrugged. "Hasn't it ever occurred to you that it's odd that all of us turned out to be wizards and witches? I've been in contact with another Digidestinied in India, and she told me that all of the Digidestinied at her place also turned out to be wizards and witches. It's quite a startling coincidence, don't you think? There're aren't many chances that six kids randomly chosen out of millions can turn out to have magical blood."

"So you're thinking that _all _Digidestinied are wizards?" Cody asked.

Ken nodded. "Precisely. Besides, Tai, Matt, Izzy, Joe, Sora, Mimi…"

"All of TK and Kari's old gang." Yolei nodded too. "Wizards as well…"

"And remember those kids that Arachnimon and Mummimon kidnapped?" Ken said suddenly.

"Of course we remember, you would too if you had been chasing after a truck for nearly half a day, without lunch or dinner…"

"Well, I've been keeping in touch with them, and guess what?"

"Wizards and witches too?"

"Precisely."

"Wow, Ken…" Davis shook his head. "For someone who doesn't talk much you sure do have loads of contacts."

"So, you're thinking…"

"The _Fire Academy students too?_"

&&&&

Draco Malfoy took a deep breath, raising his wand. He had no idea why he had been ordered to do such an odd thing, but he wasn't stupid enough to rebel against the Dark Lord, at the cost of losing his parents…

"Kouichi, I'm so sorry…"

&&&&

"Kouichi, we need to talk."

_Something was wrong…_

Kouichi looked up, and was startled to see his brother glaring angrily at him. He closed his book and stood up. "What's the matter?"

"We need to talk."

_His mind spinning… _

Kouichi glanced around edgily. "This is the library, we can't talk too loudly or-" The next thing he knew, Kouji had grabbed him by the neck of his robes and slammed him into the wall with brute force. Kouji's eyes were narrowed.

"Tell me, _big brother,_ what have you been keeping from me? It's been two whole weeks, and all you've done is avoid me."

"Kouji, stop it." Kouichi tried to gently prise off Kouji's hand, but his grip was strong. He frowned. "Don't make me do something I'll regret."

_Felt somehow… quite good…_

"What have you been keeping from me?!"

"Kouji!" Kouichi suddenly felt something inside him snap, and he hit out at Kouji with all his strength. Kouji fell to the floor with a gasp, holding a hand to his cheek where there was a thin, black gash. His brother looked up at him with a genuinely shocked expression, and for a second Kouichi's vision went white, and there was Duskmon leering back at him…

"Kouichi…"

Kouichi looked at the ruler he had been gripping in his hand. Somehow he felt incredibly angry. _Why is it that whatever I do, I have to worry about him? _"I don't need to tell you everything, do I? It's not like I have some sort of responsibility to report to you every single damn thing that I do! It's not like I can't take care of myself, you know."

"Kouichi…" Kouji's voice shook with slight fear. "Kouichi, is something wrong?"

"Yeah, there's something wrong with me all right – having a jerk like you as a brother!" Kouichi pulled out his wand. "_Avada Kedavra_!"

Kouji jumped out of the way just in time, pulling out his wand and preparing to cast any protective charms. He gazed at his older twin in fear. "Kouichi… What are you trying to do? Stop it!"

"Go to hell!" Kouichi exploded, raising his wand again, the incantations for a particular curse coming into his mind, the chanting to call upon the deepest secrets of Dark magic…

There was a loud bang, a scream, and Kouji lay unmoving on the floor…

&&&&

"That Slytherin kid attacked his own twin brother!"

"Yeah, and more than six people saw him using an Unforgivable Curse! Do you think…"

"He's a Dark wizard? What else can he be? He's a Slytherin, that's where all those kind of people come from."

"He tried to kill his own brother! He must be mad, that kid…"

Kouichi heard nothing, as he sat slumped on the floor, leaning weakly against the wall. He was just outside the hospital wing, where Kouji was, but he hadn't been in to see his brother yet. When Kouji had collapsed, several Gryffindors had rushed him to the hospital wing, while a senior Ravenclaw Disarmed Kouichi. Fighting off several students, Kouichi had run off after Kouji but had been unable to bring himself to enter the hospital wing after his brother.

"Kouichi?"

It was Takuya, but Kouichi ignored him, feeling worse every minute. He had no idea how he had lost control of himself like that; but at that moment he had just felt like attacking the person nearest to him – who happened to be Kouji. The feeling suddenly made him recall something that had happened to him about five years ago, and he felt so disgusted with himself, with what he had done…

"Kouichi, what happened?" Takuya knelt down beside him and grabbed his shoulders.

"Stop it, Takuya." It was Zoe, and Kouichi felt Takuya's hands let go of his shoulders.

"But…"

"Takuya…"

Zoe pulled Takuya up. "Come, let's go in…"

Kouichi felt the movement of people past him, into the hospital wing, where he heard Takuya exclaim loudly, "Kouji!" That made him feel even worse, and he closed his eyes tightly.

_What's happening to me? Is… Is it happening again?"_

&&&&

Harry didn't know the Japanese students very well, but he felt terribly worried all the same. He hadn't thought much about it when he had brought Kouji to the hospital wing along with Ron and Hermione, but now his mind was whirling. _Why had the guy's twin brother attacked him? It was as if he was possessed or something, and judging by Kouji's reaction back there, the way Kouichi had been acting wasn't normal. Was Kouichi really a Dark wizard? There had been those rumors…_

Kouji lay in a bed, his eyes closed but his body trembling badly, as though he was asleep and in the middle of a nightmare. Madam Pomfrey was anxiously bending over him, wiping his pale face with a sponge soaked in a healing potion. Several other Japanese students were there too, talking amongst themselves in hushed tones. Dumbledore and Snape were there too, both twirling their wands and muttering under their breaths, but nothing seemed to help.

"Headmaster, do you know what curse it is?" Pomfrey asked worriedly. "I'm afraid that if we hesitate any more, the boy might die…"

"It is a curse that I know nothing of," Dumbledore sighed. He looked at Snape, but Snape too shook his head. "It is a form of Dark Magic from the east, where they have many spells that the west do not know about."

"You mean another one of the Japanese students attacked him?" Pomfrey asked, shocked. "Why on earth would someone do this kind of thing to someone else?"

"It was his twin brother who attacked him, Poppy," Dumbledore said grimly. "By the name of Kouichi."

"Where is Kimura?" Snape asked, turning to the students, who were huddled together.

"We passed him outside," Takuya said, his voice shaking. "He was just sitting there, but he wouldn't talk to any of us."

"Get him in here," Snape ordered. "He will have to tell us about the curse that he used-"

The double doors of the hospital wing burst open, and three boys ran in; Harry recognised them as the students from the other Japanese school – Davis, TK and Ken. Ken was pulling out his wand as he ran to them, and when he reached them he paused only for a moment to gasp out an explanation.

"It's the Curse of Trapped Death," he said quickly. "The victim's spirit is trapped in the world of the dead, and without the spirit the body will start to rot until the spirit is unable to return to it." He raised his wand and pointed it at Kouji. "_Ta – Ko – Na – Chi – So – Finite!_"

There was a burst of white light, and when Harry recovered his vision, Kouji's body started to relax, and then he went totally still. Ken pointed his wand at him again, started to chant again. Harry felt himself shiver inwardly as he watched, transfixed; he had no idea this sort of magic existed. Then he felt as a strong magical presence enter the hospital wing, and when the feeling disappeared, Kouji opened his eyes.

There was a loud shout, then Takuya flung himself at Kouji, screaming hysterically. Zoe and Pomfrey quickly pulled him back, and Kouji slumped back onto his pillows, still looking very pale. As Kouji looked around, frowning as though he was unable to understand something, he murmured, "Where's Kouichi?"

"Dude, Kouichi attacked you," Takuya said uncertainly. "What exactly happened back there?"

"There's something wrong with him," Kouji said slowly, rubbing his head as if he had a bad headache. "I don't know what, but it's just like…"

"Now, now, don't think about that, you'll tire yourself out." Pomfrey patted his shoulder, and pushed a small cup of thick milky potion into his hands. "Finish that, that's an extra powerful Healing Solution…"

"But… Where's Kouichi? I need to talk to him…"

"Dude, just drink the potion," Takuya said shakily, approaching the bed. "I'll speak to Kouichi for you, you have to rest-"

"You can't tell me what to do, Takuya!" With sudden strength, Kouji pushed Takuya away, and the cup of potion fell to the floor and shattered. Kouji made to get up, but Pomfrey pushed him down.

"Lie down boy, you'll only injure yourself more." Kouji had no choice but to lie down, and indeed he did look very pale and sickly. He closed his eyes.

"Okay, but I'll be out of here by tomorrow."

Dumbledore sighed. "I guess I'll leave him to you, Poppy. Severus, I'll come with you to see Kouichi, if you don't mind. I would like to ask him some questions."

"He won't be expelled, right? Sir?" Takuya quickly asked.

Dumbledore shook his head grimly. "That I do not know. Using a Dark Curse on someone else would already warrant being jailed. Severus, come on."

Harry watched as Dumbledore and Snape left the hospital wing, then looked at Kouji. Something was seriously not right here… Then he turned to Ken, who looked slightly exhausted.

"Thanks."

"It was nothing." Ken shook his head. "That was something only Darkness students learn, back in Japan. If I hadn't come here to perform the counter-curse Kouji might have died. Besides, you have no reason to thank me, since I just did what I had-"

Ken's voice suddenly trailed off, and he gazed into the distance, as though disturbed greatly by something. He then closed his eyes tightly, and started to rub his temples as though he had a bad headache, his face contorted into a grimace.

"Ken, are you okay?" Davis asked anxiously. "Is it because of the-"

"Darkness." Ken suddenly

&&&&

**No comment.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hi all... Sorry it was so long since I last updated. Anyway, NOW the story's really beginning... Cheers!**

**&&&&**

A week had already passed since the incident, Kouji was still in the hospital wing – Madam Pomfrey had found out that Kouji was regularly experiencing headaches and couldn't sleep well, something that he had initially refused to tell her so that he could leave the place early. Madam Pomfrey, quite horrified that he was so stubborn, threatened to keep him in there until he was to go back to Japan and was keeping a closer watch on him.

The news had traveled rapidly around the school, despite Dumbledore's efforts to prevent it, and the students' reactions to it had been mixed. Some thought that the Japanese students were just crazy, others started to avoid them, some just dismissed it as some magical accident, and there were others still who thought that Kouji deserved it (mainly Slytherins).

Kouichi started to avoid mixing around in crowds, but most Slytherins treated him even better than before. He was even avoiding Takuya, Zoe and the other Japanese students, although Takuya was making increasingly desperate attempts to catch him alone to talk to him. Draco Malfoy made it easier for Kouichi by accompanying him everywhere, for which he was grateful.

Their Headmaster, Kimaru-san, had been contacted over the incident. He had Apparated immediately to England, and had a rather lenghty meeting with Dumbledore which apparently concluded in nothing. Both of them had tried and failed to get an answer out of Kouichi, who chose the remain silent everytime a teacher was nearby. The matter was still unresolved, but didn't appear to be coming any closer to a solution.

"So you're not going to tell me what happened?"

Kouichi could have been a statue, the way he was sitting so still and silently in his chair. Snape stared calmly at him. Something told him that there was something very out of the ordinary with this boy, but he just couldn't place his finger on it. Kouichi continued to stare at the floor, face expressionless.

"Is there anything that I can help you with?"

Snape could have been better off interrogating a brick wall, the way Kouichi was responding.

"Nothing?"

Even a brick wall would have cracked under the intense stare of Severus Snape. Kouichi just sat there doing absolutely nothing. Anybody who didn't know what was going on would have been bewildered to see the professor suddenly give a start and massage his forehead.

"You may leave."

Snape waited until Kouichi had gone, again without a word. The boy wasn't just good in Occlumency, he was damn skilled at it. Then he frowned. Pulling open a drawer, he took out a silver coin with odd markings around the edges. He tapped it twice with his wand, and the coin started to glow.

"Draco Malfoy, come to see me in my office now," he commanded.

&&&&

Harry, the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, couldn't have been more distracted. Strictly speaking, he wasn't that close to Kouji, but he regularly visited him in the hospital wing along with Ron and Hermione, just to check on how he was doing. He still couldn't figure out what the problem was; all he knew that there was a problem.

He was having the Quidditch tryouts for positions of Keeper and Chasers. To start everything off, he had had everyone trying out to fly around the pitch, to gauge how good they were on broomsticks, and he couldn't help being impressed with the Japanese students. Takuya, Davis and TK were good, with flying styles that he were simply amazed with.

"And how on earth did you do that?" Harry asked Davis, astounded. Davis had just flew around the pitch at top speed, all the time hanging on to his broom _upside down. _

"Just twist and hang on," Davis said modestly. "Anyway, you should see what Ken can do, he was the one who taught me that."

Harry sighed. "Well then, if he's going to be in the Slytherin team we had better work hard."

It was easy. Harry found that the Japanese students flew so well that he put them all in the team, although he made sure that he found reserves as well, to replace them when they were transferred to their alternate Houses. TK would temporarily take over the position of Keeper from Ron, who had actually chickened out from trying out this year, while Davis and Takuya would be Chasers, alongside Katie Bell.

"Here's to our new team!" Davis shouted, as the new team landed. "We're gonna rule!"

Everyone laughed.

&&&&

Kouichi couldn't remember feeling more confused than this in his entire life. First his mind had gone blank, then when he snapped back to reality he had found Kouji lying on the floor, writhing from a curse that he had cast. Then Draco had dragged him back to their dorm, and made him promise that he wouldn't tell anything to anyone about what actually happened. That had been easy; in the first place he didn't know what happened, and second, he was exactly like Kouji in certain ways – he just didn't tell other people about his problems.

Since that incident, Draco had become very close to him, defending him when other students started to talk about him behind his back, accompanying him almost every minute of the day, and basically becoming his best friend. Although he was grateful for it, he was also puzzled by his actions, but had decided to wait and see how things turned out.

He hadn't dared to go visit Kouji in the hospital wing, with Madam Pomfrey hovering about all the time. According to Draco, Kouji had lied to the school nurse about being fine, which was just so typical of him. Kouichi just couldn't help but feel more worried about him, and somehow Draco knew what he was thinking.

"You want to go visit your brother, don't you? But you don't dare to because Pomfrey's around."

Kouichi looked up from his Potions book and stared at Draco. "How on earth did you know that?"

"Because that's exactly the way I would feel. Now listen. The doors of the hospital wing are locked every night at precisely eleven. Pomfrey goes to bed at midnight, after checking on the patients, if there are any, and organising her potions. If there's a suitable time to break into the place, it'll be after she goes to bed."

"You're asking me to break into the hospital wing?"

"Are you that stupid?"

"If I actually did that sort of thing I _would _be stupid! If anyone catches me, they'll probably think that I'm there to finish Kouji off-"

"That isn't what you want to do, right?"

"Ha ha ha," Kouichi deadpanned.

"You've only got to watch out for old Filch and his cat, but it'll be easy if he's distracted long enough for you to get up to the hospital wing and back into the dorm. I think that a smashed-up classroom would be good enough, don't you think?"

Kouichi stared even more. Draco was grinning. "Tonight, at one. Don't sleep, will you?"

&&&&

As usual, Kouichi had trouble falling asleep in the dark, and consequently was wide awake when Draco lobbed a pillow at him. Already fully dressed, he crept out into the common room with Draco, who seemed to be perfectly accustomed to sneaking about at night. Already in a lot of trouble over attacking Kouji, Kouichi was rather jumpy, and even Draco sneered at him when a thud broke the silence of the night.

"Come on, must just be the wind. Let's go."

"The wind blowing in the _dungeons_?" Kouichi questioned, but Draco was already out of the common room, waiting impatiently for him. Still uncertain, Kouichi glanced over his shoulder, ears strained, wand raised.

"Are you coming or not?"

"Fine, fine," Kouichi muttered, going after Draco. But even as they made their way out of the dungeons, Kouichi could have sworn that he had seen a pair of eyes gleaming under a sofa.

&&&&

Wormmon waited until everything was perfectly still again before letting out the breath he had been holding.

"I'm never going out again at night, whatever V-mon says. Nearly got seen… I'm going to get V-mon for it."

&&&&

"_Reducto_!"

Kouichi stared at what had previously been a neat, perfectly usable classroom. "Was that necessary?"

Draco glared at him. "Time's running out. Get going, or do you want me to be risking my neck for nothing?"

"I'm not so sure about this, Draco. Shouldn't we-"

"Kimura, get your ass up to the hospital wing now!"

Kouichi couldn't help but grin nervously as he took off at full speed. Luck seemed to be on his side, for he met no one along the way. Finally he reached the great doors of the hospital wing. Draco was right. The doors were locked from the inside, and from what he could tell, with a large, old-fashioned catch.

"_Alohomora_!"

Kouichi winced as the catch swung open with a loud creak. The place was dark, only light coming from a single candle floating near the ceiling. The only occupied bed was right in the middle, its occupant…

"Kouji?"

The look on his brother's face changed instantly. In the near-darkness, it was hard to tell what expression he was wearing.

"Kouichi? You _broke _into the hospital wing?"

Kouichi smiled nervously. "Apparently, I just did." He approached the bed, not looking directly into his brother's eyes. "I just came to say that I'm sorry."

Kouji's face broke into a small smile. "You _broke _into the hospital wing just to do _that_? Isn't that kinda out of the ordinary for you?" Then he turned serious. "I should be the one apologising. I felt that you were ignoring me, and I was angry with you. I should have realised long ago that I'm being too protective of you. You were just mixing around with your own group of friends. I guess I was jealous that you didn't seem to hang around me so much anymore. I'm sorry."

Kouichi looked up. "I guess it's my fault too. I don't know what came over me."

"Dumbledore and Kimaru-san both think that you were under a spell," Kouji said dismissively. "They're investigating into it, so it's not your fault at all. I was provoking you."

For the first time, the twins looked at each other fully in the eye. Then, at precisely the same moment, the two of them broke into broad grins.

"Man, why does Takuya have to be right all the time about us being so stupid?" Kouji gasped, laughing silently.

Kouichi nodded in agreement. "That guy is really a lot smarter than he looks."

"So, how's it going?" Kouji asked, still grinning. Kouichi was the only person Kouji ever smiled at. To Kouichi, it seemed how incredible a smile could transform Kouji's normally serious expression, making him look much younger and cheerful.

"Draco Malfoy helped me to get in here, he's probably running away from Filch at the moment." Kouichi sighed. "I just don't know what's the matter with him, he's a bit odd."

"According to Harry Potter, Draco's a complete jerk," Kouji said with a shrug. "Apparently those two are enemies, can't pass each other in the corridor without quarrelling."

"He's actually quite a nice person, just completely unpredictable," Kouichi added. "What about you? Feeling better? Draco told me that you lied to Pomfrey-"

Kouji scowled, looking rather childish, something that he saved only for his private moments with his twin. "She's treating me like a child, like I can't take care of myself. And it's not headaches that I've been having. I can't explain it, but I have a feeling that it has something to do with the Digiworld. I just have these visions, and when I snap out of them, Pomfrey acts as though I've been to hell and back-"

"Actually that was what the curse was meant to do," Kouichi said rather sheepishly, ashamed.

"No, wait, hear me out. Can you do that again?"

Kouichi stared at him. "You want me to kill you?"

"I said, listen. I just remember arguing with you, and then there was this burst of white light. And it was no ordinary white light, it was Digicode! Then I was in the Digiworld, but it didn't look like the Digiworld we left behind. It was complete chaos, much like the time when the Royal Knights were rampaging about. I think – I'm sure – that something is wrong."

Kouichi stiffened. "Have you told anyone about this?"

Kouji shook his head. "Takuya would have dragged Zoe, JP and Tommy off back to the Shibuya train station to try to go back to the Digiworld, you know how rash he is. I've been thinking a lot about this, which is probably why Pomfrey thinks I can't sleep well at night…"

"And now that you mention it, why are you up now?" Kouichi asked, frowning. "You're a Light element, staying up so late at night isn't natural to you."

"The Digiworld's more important," Kouji said firmly. "I've been thinking, we need to get everyone together to discuss this, it's too risky talking about this in here, when Pomfrey acts like I'm going to die any minute. Then we need to find a way to get back to the Digiworld, fix the problem, and back to Hogwarts before anyone notices anything."

"That's… impossible."

"Precisely. Now you get why I can't sleep at night?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Kouichi sighed. "And one more thing I've found out. Dumbledore's keeping something from us. I found out when I was alone with him."

"You mean like when anyone's using Legilimency against you, and it ends up backfiring because of your Occlumency?"

"Er… Yeah." Kouichi went slightly red. Among all the Elemental students – in fact, all the students in their school, he was the best in Occlumency. Even their Headmaster had acknowledged how good he was at it. Anyone trying to break his mind barrier with Legilimency would end up having their attempt backfiring, and Kouichi would have access to their thoughts instead.

"Do you know what it is?"

"Yes." Kouichi took a deep breath. It had been an internal struggle for him not to do anything about it other than _think_, but he hadn't been able to face Takuya and the others. Even finding out about it had been a real shock to him.

"Kouichi, what is it?"

"Dumbledore." Kouichi took another deep breath. "Dumbledore knows about the Digiworld."

&&&&

**I'm just going to let the chapter end here... Hehe...**

**Ken**


	9. Chapter 9

**Here's the new chapter **

**Chapter 9**

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

"Kari?"

Kari sleepily stared at Gatomon. "What is it? And keep it down, or you'll be seen."

The dorm was silent. Kari's dormmates, Hermione, Lavender and Parvati, were already fast asleep long time ago, and Kari had just been drifting off to sleep when Gatomon had gently tapped her on her ankle.

"There's an owl."

"What?"

"Owl."

Kari pulled back the curtains around her bed, gazing blearily out into the semi-darkness. Through the dim light shining in through the window, she could make out a dark shape of a bird tapping insistently on the glass.

She went to the window and let it in. "Fireball," she whispered, recognised the reddish-brown owl that belonged to her older brother, Tai. The owl was carrying a package wrapped up in paper, which it dropped onto her bedside table before flying off again.

"Bye, Fireball," Gatomon said quietly, before pouncing on the package.

Kari shot a warning look at her digimon before climbing back into bed and drawing the curtains around her shut. Then she pulled out her wand.

"_Lumos._"

Gatomon had torn open the paper wrapping of the package, revealing a thick sheaf of white printing paper that had been stapled together.

"There's a note." Gatomon held out an envelope. Kari took it.

_Kari,_

_Hi, everything okay there? It's not here… The news are being hushed up in the newspapers but everything's all over the internet. Well, it used to be, but even the articles on the internet have been taken down, guess who? But our computer genius Izzy managed to retrieve quite a lot of info from the net, which we've printed out and sent to you. _

_Don't worry about it, we're trying to figure out what's going on. If we can't then, well… Oh well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. _

_Bye, and take care._

_Love,_

_Tai._

Typical Tai. He never wrote much in letters. This letter was no exception.

Gatomon scrambled over to her side as she picked up the stack of papers Tai had sent her. Kari was quite good at speed-reading, and before five minutes had passed, her eyes were wide open in shock and she felt completely awake. The articles were all from the internet, and all of them carried an almost similar story.

Strange unidentified creatures had been sighted in parts of Japan, and not even the Japanese Ministry of Magic knew what they were. The creatures only appeared briefly before disappearing into thin air. And wherever these creatures appeared, destruction followed.

Kari shuffled through the papers, finally selecting one article at random. She read through the article slowly. A park had been discovered completely burnt down to the ground. Even its metal benches had been damaged so badly that all that remained were shapeless structures of twisted metal. A witch living nearby had reported seeing a strange, bird-like creature apparently struggling with a few hooded figures shortly before the entire park exploded into flames.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Gatomon whispered.

"Digimon," Kari whispered back. "But what are they doing here in the human world? Something must be wrong with the Digiworld."

"There should be other Digidestinied guarding the Digiworld,"  
Gatomon said. "We should have faith in them."

Kari nodded. "I guess you're right. But I'm still really worried. Tai and the others must be worried about it as well, otherwise Tai wouldn't have contacted me. But now we really have to get some sleep, I'm dead tired."

"_You _have to get some sleep," Gatomon corrected her. "I'm going off to tell Patamon and Veemon."

"Be careful," Kari whispered, but Gatomon had already jumped off the bed. Gatomon gave her a wink, then scampered quietly out of the dormitory.

&&&&

"AND THAT'S SO GREAT! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME A SINGLE WORD ABOUT IT? JUST GREAT! I COULD HAVE-"

"_SILENCE_!" Madam Pomfrey roared, running over to the small group gathered around Kouji's bed. "One more word – one more word – and you're OUT!" she panted fiercely, glaring straight at Takuya, who took a few steps backwards in alarm.

"We're so sorry, Madam Pomfrey," Zoe said, putting on her sweetest smile that could have melted even Dementor's heart – that is, if Dementors even had hearts. "I promise that I'll put a Silencing Charm on him the next time he opens his mouth."

The matron glared at each and every one of them, eyes flashing. "Are they disturbing you, Minamoto?"

"Course not," Kouji said quickly. "Can you leave us?"

Madam Pomfrey shot all of them one more glare before stalking away, muttering about 'how tactless, incredibly dense and ungrateful youngsters were these days.'

"We had better apologise to her," Tommy said, staring after her. "I bet she's going to be complaining to our Heads of Houses right after we leave."

"Oh, who cares, it's not like I'm on my deathbed anyway," Kouji said dismissively. "I'm going to get her to let me out of here by tomorrow."

"So that's why she looked so peeved when she let us in," J.P concluded. "So, you were saying that there's something wrong with the Digiworld?"

Kouji nodded. "I don't know how bad the situation is, but hopefully what I saw is in an isolated area only. Looked as though there had been a war or something."

"Do you think Ophanimon could be trying to send you a message?" Tommy asked.

"So, what do we do?" J.P asked. Only Zoe answered.

"The only way we can be sure that the Digiworld is fine is by actually going there and checking it out for ourselves. But since the only way to get there is by the Trailmon, you can't expect all of us to go all the way back to Japan and see if there are any Trailmon in the Shibuya station…"

"Unless Trailmon come to the Hogsmeade station as well," Tommy put in.

"So my point is that we can't just go running off to the Digiworld when we have no solid proof that we're needed there," Zoe continued.

"Zoe's right," Kouichi said, speaking for the first time. "If the Digiworld needs us, either our Spirits or the Angel Digimon will find a way of contacting us and telling us what exactly happened."

"So you're saying that we should just sit on our backsides here and do absolutely nothing?" Takuya fumed.

"We wait," Kouji corrected him. He glanced at his brother. They had decided earlier not to tell anyone else that Dumbledore knew about the Digiworld. At the moment, all of them were helpless to do anything, so far away from home in a foreign land.

"If you say so," Takuya said grumpily.

"Good," Zoe said brightly. "Now, if you don't mind, I've got some killer project to complete for McGonagall on Partial Transfiguration, and we've to hand it in three days." She got up.

J.P got up too. "If you don't mind, I haven't finished mine either. Wanna do it together?"

Zoe nodded. "Sure. Well, we'll be seeing you guys around."

"And hey, we'll meet up by the lake later in the evening, 'k?" Takuya added.

"Gotcha."

&&&&

"Thirteen times."

"What?" Kouichi looked up from his book. Draco Malfoy was sitting across the table from him, smirking at something. They were in the library, catching up on some subjects and finishing their homework.

"Thirteen times," Draco repeated. "What do you have in your pocket, a dragon egg?" He smirked. "You've checked your pockets at least thirteen times."

Kouichi smiled sheepishly. "I thought you were supposed to be studying, not counting the number of times I check my pocket." Indeed, he had been anxiously checking his pocket regularly for his D-Tector – he had taken to carrying it around with him recently, afraid that he might miss a warning from the Digiworld. Subconsciously his hand strayed to his pocket again.

"Fourteen times."

"Come on, we've got to finish Flitwick's stuff," Kouichi said, trying to divert Draco's attention. "I still need about three more solutions for this question."

"Which one?" Draco leant over the table, reading the heading on Kouichi's parchment upside down. "_Name six spells you would use if you were trapped in a burning building, and why. _What have you written already?"

"Well, I put in _Aguamenti_…" Kouichi checked the book he had open in front of him.

"_Reducto_," Draco said, carelessly flicking open the lid of his ink bottle. The cap bounced over his notes and rolled to a stop above a diagram of a werewolf, leaving a trail of bluish black ink. "To blast away any debris that's blocking your escape route."

Kouichi was just about to write it down when he heard it. The voice.

"_Kouichi._"

The voice was oddly familiar. Suddenly he remembered it, and he froze in the middle of writing down his answer. The last time he had heard that voice was in the Digiworld. _Ophanimon._

"_Kouichi._"

Kouichi turned to Draco, who was wiping off the ink from his notes with his wand. "Did you hear that?" Kouichi asked him quietly.

"Hear what?"

"_Kouichi."_

"That," Kouichi said quickly. "Did you hear that?"

The look on Draco's face was odd. "No, I didn't hear anything," he said casually, going back to his work. "Are you sure you heard something?"

Kouichi stared at Draco, who was suddenly very immersed in a book. "You're lying," he said softly.

Draco slowly looked up to face Kouichi. A tense moment passed between them. "But I really didn't hear anything," Draco said. He looked rather disturbed.

"You're lying," Kouichi said again. Then he felt it… Something seemed to snap inside of him, and he started to boil with anger. Draco was lying to him… "You're lying." This time, when he said it, a trace of Darkness lined his voice. But when he heard his own voice, he gave a start. This was precisely how he felt when he had attacked Kouji… He clenched his fists. _Control yourself…_

"It's not a good sign to be hearing voices," Draco said quietly.

"You heard the voice too, didn't you?" Kouichi asked, trying to remain calm.

"I didn't hear anything." The two of them stared at each other, hard.

Kouichi stood up abruptly. A thousand words passed through his mind, and he decided that it would be better to leave them unspoken. "I'm going to get more books," he said rigidly.

"I'll come with you." Draco stood up as well.

In complete silence they walked over to the bookshelves. The library was nearly empty, with the librarian Madam Pince busy dusting the Charms section. Kouichi randomly chose a row, and walked right to the end. He could just see Madam Pince magically directing a feather duster through the gap in the shelves.

"What do you have in your pocket?" Draco suddenly asked. His voice was soft and menacing.

"Nothing," Kouichi replied coldly.

Then Draco made a sudden lunging movement, throwing himself at Kouichi. They crashed to the floor, grappling with each other. Draco was quick – in a few seconds he had wrestled Kouichi's arms away and ripped aside his robes. Kouichi gasped as Draco snatched out his D-Tector. For a split second, both boys froze, staring at the black device in Draco's hands.

Kouichi pushed Draco off him and grabbed his D-Tector back. He was just stowing it back into his robes when a loud voice boomed out.

"What on earth are you doing? Fighting in the library?"

Both boys stood up hastily, not looking at each other. Madam Pince was glaring at them, her feather duster hovering threateningly in mid-air.

Kouichi slowly looked up and chanced a glance at Draco, and found Draco glancing back at him.

"I'm sorry," both of them muttered, more to each other than to the furious librarian.

&&&&

"Where's Kouichi?" Takuya asked Kouji. Zoe, J.P and Tommy were nearby, both Zoe and J.P lying down on the grass with books open in front of them. Tommy was skipping stones across the lake, only half-heartedly listening to their conversation. "He was supposed to be here ten minutes ago."

Kouji glared at Takuya. "He's in detention with that Draco Malfoy. For fighting in the library."

Takuya gaped. "Kouichi? Our Kouichi Kimura? In detention? Will wonders never cease, man. He's really changed a lot."

"Takuya-" Zoe began, but Kouji had already jumped up.

"I'm going back to the castle," Kouji said coldly. Without another word he stalked off in the direction of the Hogwarts castle.

Takuya stared. "What on earth is wrong with him? Can't a man make a comment without getting the cold shoulder every single time?" he sat up and frowned after Kouji. Then he sighed. "I really don't get what's wrong with him."

"_You_ are what's wrong with him," Zoe snapped. "He's obviously worried about Kouichi. Kouichi hardly ever talks to Kouji now, and Kouji's just disturbed by that. And you have to go and make things worse by commenting on it."

Takuya groaned. "I guess you have a point. I think I better go after him…"

"You _think_?" Zoe said. "You had better do it."

Takuya groaned again. "Wish me luck," he muttered darkly, sprinting across the grounds after Kouji. He only managed to catch up with the angry Kouji in the Entrance Hall, which was deserted. "Hey, Kouji!"

Kouji turned around, looking annoyed. Before Takuya could say anything, a familiar voice greeted them.

"Hi, Takuya, Kouji!"

It was Ron. Harry and Hermione were with him as usual, but Harry was glaring at someone else, who had just appeared from the corridor leading down to the dungeons. Takuya turned to see who it was, and stiffened as well. Draco Malfoy and Kouichi, both of whom looked rather awkward about something.

An extremely silent and tense moment passed. Everyone was either glaring or looking away from each other. Then something dark brown soared into the Hall and stopped on the highest banister. The owl blinked down at everyone, as if trying to decide who to deliver its letter to.

Ron suddenly gasped. "That's Fred and George's owl! Why are they writing now?"

He stepped forward, but the owl suddenly took off. The owl flew directly above Draco and Kouichi, neatly dropping an envelope into Draco's hands. Before anyone could comment on this, the owl flew off again, leaving the situation in the hall tenser than ever.

Ron ran up to Draco. "What's that? I'm sure that was my brothers' owl. Who's delivering letters to you with their owl?" he demanded. He snatched at the letter, but Draco grabbed it back. However, Ron was fast enough to read the name on the envelope – _Draco Malfoy_.

Draco held the letter so tightly that he crumpled it. He turned to look at Kouichi. "Can we talk? Not here, back in the common room."

Kouichi was startled, but he nodded. "Okay." He glanced at Kouji, and felt rather guilty. But something told him that this was important.

They ran back the way that they came, back to the Slytherin common room. Kouichi gave the password – _Salazar _– as Draco was skimming through his letter, and they stepped into the common room. It was half-full with Slytherins. Draco glanced around.

"Not here, in the dorm," Draco said quietly. Kouichi was rather surprised but he nodded.

They had to go up a short flight of stairs to get to their dorm. The door to their dormitory was closed. Kouichi stopped, keeping one hand on the door handle. "Are you okay, Draco?"

Draco nodded numbly. "I think that Ken's in there," he said quietly.

"You think?" Kouichi pushed the door open. Then he stared…

&&&&

Kouichi stared down at the dark green creature. He had seen it once or twice in the Digiworld. If he was correct, that creature was called a Wormmon… What he had seen when he had opened the door was this – Ken, sitting on the edge of his bed, reading through some Muggle-looking papers, and a green bug creature sitting on his shoulder.

"Um… Hi," Wormmon said uncertainly, looking up at the three Slytherins who had been staring uncomfortably at each other for about a whole minute now. "Why isn't anyone saying anything?"

Kouichi stared at Ken. "Are you… a…"

Ken nodded. "I'm a Digidestinied," he said quietly. "You're one too, aren't you, Kouichi? Every time I go near you, my Digivice detects something… That's you, isn't it? My Digivice has been detecting yours."

Kouichi was shocked at this statement, but he nodded as well. Another tense moment passed. Then Kouichi looked at Draco. "You're probably wondering what is going on…"

Draco gave a hollow laugh. "This is amazing… Simply incredible," he said softly. Even as he spoke, he reached down into his robes and pulled out something. Ken and Kouichi gaped at the thing in his hand.

"You see," Draco said, his voice now a mere whisper. "I'm one too."

&&&&

**R&R**

**Ken**


	10. Chapter 10

**Sorry for the slow update... My computer had to be reformatted with chapters for ALL my fics ready to be uploaded... The computer is still gaga, and I'm using another one...**

* * *

Night had fallen, and Diagon Alley was nearly deserted, unlike its usual bustling state in the daytime. Fred and George, as usual, were going over the day's accounts and counting the stocks.

"Here," Fred said, dumping a thick stack of parchment in front of George. "We need more Nosebleed Nougats and fake wands, we're nearly sold out."

George sighed. "I hate paperwork." He leant back in his chair. "And where on earth has that bird gone to? Jet's been missing for at least a week now. Do you think anything's happened to him?" They hadn't seen their owl ever since they had sent him off delivering their latest orders for stock.

"You know how Jet likes to slack off, he just had better be here the next time we need him. I don't think there's anything to worry about, people rarely kidnap owls, do they?" Fred glanced down at the mess of parchment spread out in front of his twin. "Are you nearly done? I'm hungry."

"Almost... I think. I just can't get it to tally... I'm hungry too, why don't you go and get something for supper first?"

"Sure..." Fred went back downstairs into the shop. Through the display windows, the streets of Diagon Alley seemed to be flickering in an orange light. The moment he stepped outside, something small and feathery flew right into him.

"Jet!" Fred struggled a while with their frantically hooting owl. When he finally managed to get the owl to settle down quietly, Fred caught distinct sounds of footsteps coming towards him. His hand automatically moved towards his wand, ready to attack if they were Death Eaters, but when he saw what it was, his hand froze on his wand.

Two strange creatures, one white, one black, were leading a group of equally odd looking creatures down the street. The white and black creatures looked almost similar, with long, flapping wings and small bodies. Fred stared for a long moment at the both of them, and they stared back at him.

Finally finding his voice, Fred gave a frantic yell to his twin. "George! You had better come and see this, George! GEORGE!"

&

Hermione finally finished selecting her books and carried them over to the table where Harry and Ron already were, struggling with their homework. The two boys looked up and gaped at the huge stack of books in her arms.

"You've finished Snape's essay, haven't you?" Ron asked with a sigh.

"Obviously," Hermione said in a dignified way. She set down the books onto the table. "I just wanted to get these for some light reading, for a change. Are you two anywhere near finishing?"

"No," both Harry and Ron said at the same time. "Obviously," Ron added.

"I'm not going to help you," Hermione said sternly, as Harry raised an eyebrow. "Go find the books yourself."

Harry sighed, but got up. He wandered over to the section on Defence, and started to scan through all the book titles. Finally he found a thick and heavy one that he thought might be useful, but had a hard time tugging it out of shelf. Just as he managed to pull the book off, he came face to face with someone very familiar: Cho Chang.

Cho's face hardened slightly, and Harry scowled back. Firmly turning his back on her, Harry stalked off back to his table, slamming the book down with completely unecessary force.

"What's up, mate?" Ron asked, startled.

Hermione glanced over her shoulder to see a tall, dark-haired girl striding off towards the Restricted Section. "Oh," she said simply.

Feeling distinctly unhappy, Harry had a hard time concentrating on his work. His anger increased when someone else appeared at the table: Draco Malfoy.

"What do you want?" Harry snapped, irritated. One of the Slytherin Japanese exchange students, Kouichi, was lurking behind Malfoy looking rather wary.

"The Dark Lord's up to something," Malfoy said simply.

"What?" Harry snapped again. "Why would you be telling me that?"

"But this time, I want you three to stay out of it."

"Why?" Harry stared suspiciously at him. Malfoy wasn't acting like his real self at all.

"The Dark Lord's planning something too dangerous even for you three to try to stop him. Let me take care of it, this isn't up to you, you won't be able to do anything here." Malfoy glanced around and lowered his voice. "You had better stay out of this. There will be others who are more expertised in this to stop him."

"But I thought you were on his side," Ron said suspiciously.

"This time I'm not, I don't approve of what he's doing. Remember my warning: Don't mess in this or you'll find yourself in more trouble than you can handle." Malfoy turned and stalked off without a backwards glance. However, Kouichi approached the table uncertainly.

"Er... Have you guys seen my brother or Takuya anywhere? I'm looking for them, it's important."

"Well, they were saying something about going down by the lake to study there," Hermione said.

"Thanks, and seriously..." Kouichi hesitated. "Take Draco's warning. You should stay out of this."

Kouichi caught up with Draco outside the library. "Are you so sure that Voldemort's behind this?"

"It's not my opinion, more rather it's my team leaders opinion," Draco said quietly. "The letter that I got the other day was from the Digidestinied who went to the Digiworld with me. Gennai came to them and said that a Dark wizard was causing chaos in the Digiworld. Who else would it be but the Dark Lord? Death Eaters have been seen wherever Digimon have been appearing, it can't be a coincidence."

"You're right," Kouichi said at last. "But who's Gennai?"

"You don't know Gennai?"

"No I don't."

"Then who guided your Digidestinied team?"

"Basically it was Ophanimon, one of the three angel Digimon." Kouichi frowned at the puzzled look on Draco's face. "You've never heard of the three angel Digimon?"

"No."

They stared at each other.

&

"Where on earth is Kouichi? He's late." Takuya grumpily stared all around him. "He asks us to gather by the lake for something urgent, then shows up late. Doesn't make it seem so urgent after all..." There were many other groups of students wandering about the courtyard, and the nearest group to them was the Fire Academy students, all of whom were chatting noisily.

"Be patient," Zoe said, although she too was looking all around them for Kouichi. "He'll show."

"He had better," Takuya scowled.

"He will," Kouji said quietly.

"If Kouji says he will, then he will." Tommy sat down on the grass. The others followed suit. Sure enough, barely a minute later, a familiar figure came running over to them, Slytherin robes billowing out behind him. Kouichi stopped right in front of them and dropped to the ground, panting hard.

"Sorry," he gasped out.

"Catch your breath, it doesn't matter," Zoe said, shooting Takuya a warning look. "What was it you wanted to tell us?"

Kouichi's breathing slowed and he started to look very uncertain.

"What is it?" Tommy asked eagerly.

"Well... It's about..." Kouichi faltered. "Erm... Actually... It's about the Digiworld."

"What? Is the Digiworld in trouble?" Takuya almost yelled. Kouji clapped a hand over Takuya's mouth to keep him silent, and for a while the two of them had a silent fistfight on the grass.

"No, nothing like that. Actually it _is _in trouble, but that wasn't what I wanted to tell you..." Kouichi knew he was sounding extremely lame, and he scratched his head uncertainly. "I mean... Has it ever occured to you guys that some other people might have been to the Digiworld, besides us?"

"No," Takuya said promptly.

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Now that you mention it, there _is _a possibility. Most of the Digimon we met back then knew about the human world, and that we were human children. That wouldn't have been possible if they hadn't heard of our world. There could have been other children before us. Why suddenly this topic now?"

"You've found some others who went too, haven't you?" Kouji said quietly.

Kouichi caught Kouji's eyes, feeling immensely thankful. "Yeah."

"Who?" J.P asked excitedly. "Anyone we know?"

"Erm... Yeah."

"Who?!" Takuya practically shouted with excitement.

"Well... Er..." Kouichi was at a loss for words. "As a matter of fact, I found _two _other Digidestinied teams."

"Quit stalling," Takuya said, almost bouncing up and down. "Who?"

"One team is led by Davis Motomiya and Ken Ichijouji... And the other by Ron's older brothers, Fred and George Weasley."

It took quite a long time for the statement to sink in, and once it did, everyone slowly turned to stare at the Fire Academy students. The Fire Academy students stared back, and Kouichi and Ken looked at each other helplessly.

&

There was something extremely odd going on between the Japanese exchange students, Hermione noticed. Normally, during dinner, all of them would be chatting cheerfully, but today, all of them were talking intensely in hushed whispers. Harry was still obsessing over what Malfoy had said to notice anything suspicious, while Ron wasn't helping by giving wilder and wilder guesses as to why Malfoy was acting that way.

"I guess he's just gone bonkers," Ron said at last, stabbing at his food.

"I hate him," Harry said for the thousandth time.

"I get the feeling, man," Ron said sympathetically. "But why would he say something like that? It's not like him to want to stand up against You-Know-Who, we all know how much of a coward he is."

"He could be lying, so that we wouldn't want to try to find out what's going on." Harry lowered his voice. "But, seriously, the newspapers haven't been reporting anything at all about Voldemort. It's not like him to not do anything, especially since the Ministry has acknowledged that he's returned."

"I agree, the lack of news is disturbing." Hermione paused thoughtfully. "But then why would Malfoy say that he's up to something?"

Harry sighed. "Why on earth are we getting so worked up over that jerk?"

"Because I get the feeling that he's telling the truth," Hermione said quietly.

A few seats away, the topic of the mysteriously appearing Digimon had been discussed so thoroughly by Kouji, T.K and Kari that they had no more ideas, and had started comparing details of their adventures in the Digiworld.

"It doesn't sound like we've been to the same Digiworld," Kari said in a whisper. "I just don't get why you guys didn't have partner Digimon, like us."

"But how can there be moe than one Digiworld?" T.K whispered. "Kouji, when and how did you guys go to the Digiworld?"

Kouji frowned. "It was five years ago, I was eleven at that time. All of us, except for Kouichi, received some sort of text message on our cells telling us to get to the train station in Shibuya, and take the elevator. The elevator came out in a strange basement-like part of the station, where Trailmon took us to the Digiworld."

"We've never even heard of Trailmon," Kari muttered. "We got there by opening the Port through a computer, and we can choose to go back whenever we want to. But we haven't been going back regularly of late, we've just been so busy with school."

"Speaking of going back there," T.K said suddenly, "Why don't we try to go back there and see what's going on?"

"I'm sure Tai and the others would have enough sense to try that." Kari sighed. "What time is it already?"

"Nearly seven, I guess we had better start moving soon." Kouji glanced at Takuya, who was still chatting excitedly with Davis. The Slytherin Digidestinied had arranged for a meeting at the library at seven, and the Japanese Digidestinied were to meet them there. It was strange to actually be back in action after so long of thinking that the Digiworld was perfectly fine.

Over at the Hufflepuff table, Yolei, Zoe, Cody and J.P had already finished their dinner and were moving to the stairs. Kouji stood up, and so did T.K and Kari. There was no sign of Kouichi or Ken at the Slytherin table. Takuya and Davis followed suit. They were unusually quiet as they went up the stairs, all keeping to their own thoughts.

The library was rather empty, with most the students still at dinner. Kouji soon spotted Kouichi at one of the larger tables, accompanied by Ken Ichijouji, the Hufflepuff Digidestinied and… _Draco Malfoy_?

"So you three are the ones responsible for this?" Takuya said, sitting down opposite the Slytherins. "You're Draco Malfoy, aren't you? I'm Takuya Kanbara."

"I know who you are, since you're a Gryffindor and I'm a Slytherin, it's best that I know the names of all my enemies," Draco said wryly.

"He's joking," Kouichi said quickly. "Is everyone here?"

"Yep, from our team," Davis put in excitedly. "Yours?" he asked, turning to Takuya.

"All here." Takuya glanced around for confirmation. "Yeah, all here."

"Do you think Madam Pince will get suspicious and chuck us out or something?" Zoe said suddenly, glancing around. The strict librarian was busy going through a huge stack of books on her desk, although every now and then she would look up and glare at everyone in irritation that they were touching her precious books.

"Well, it could just be any random study group," Tommy suggested.

"Only that none of us are holding any books with us," Kari pointed out.

"I think it would be okay if we just keep our voices down," Yolei said. "Besides, we do have to be quiet about this, anyway."

"Hey… I'm sorry, am I late?"

Everyone looked around to see a tall girl approaching the table. Draco Malfoy stood up. "Don't worry, we haven't even started yet." He turned to face the table. "Everyone, this is Cho Chang. She's the only one remaining at Hogwarts from my team."

&

"Guys, aren't you going to get sick from all that ice cream?" Fred sighed in amusement as he watched the Digimon practically guzzling tub after tub of ice cream. "That's at least thirty Galleons worth of ice cream you know."

"But it's nice. Tastes like… Snow mixed with sugar."

"And artificial colouring."

"It's artificial? Yucks!"

"It's not artificial, Lopmon." George stared at the five Digimon, absent mindedly stroking his partner. "I think _I'm _going to be sick just _watching _you guys _inhale _all that ice cream."

"We're not inhaling the ice cream, we're _eating _it."

"Shut up, Kudamon."

"How I miss the old days," Fred sighed, leaning back in his chair. The Digimon were all so excited that they had made a complete mess of the twins' bedroom. Not that they minded, since it was already in a mess to begin with, but several of their customers had complained about odd bangs and noises coming from upstairs, which George had waved off as their "experimental team at work."

"I wanna see Cho," a small red Digimon complained, clutching at a tub of strawberry ice cream. The Digimon looked like a cross between a fox and a lion cub.

"She's at school, and can't get away now, Coronamon," George explained.

"Draco's at school too?" Kudamon piped up.

"Yeah." Fred shook his head as his partner Digimon, Terriermon, offered him a pawful of ice cream. "No thanks, I'm almost frozen just looking at all those empty tubs. And when's that guy coming anyway? He's late."

Right away, as if on cue, Gotsumon, who had been sitting closest to the door, sprang up. "He's here!" Gotsumon shouted out. A moment later, the doorbell rang. Gotsumon crashed down the stairs, followed by a more calm George, with Lopmon still perched on his head.

"Open the door, open the door!" Gotsumon shouted, bouncing up and down, knocking down a stack of empty boxes by the door. George grinned and pointed his wand at the doorknob. The lock clicked and the door swung open.

"Lee Jordan!"

**Kudamon and Coronamon are from Digimon Battle Squad, which I don't watch so don't ask. I wanted Cho to have Swanmon, but Swanmon's the Armour form of Gatomon with the Crest of Love, so too bad.**

**Ken**


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry about the (extremely) slow update. Even though I do have ideas, I can't seem to write properly, so it's either updating slowly or uploading a bunch of nonsensical rambling. You choose**

* * *

Chapter 11

"I just don't get it," Izzy said for what seemed like the millionth time. "Why has the Digiworld completely shut itself off from us?"

"There's only one reasonable explanation for this," Matt said, glancing around at his fellow Digidestinied. "The gate has been shut."

"Or someone's blocking us," Sora suggested. She yawned. "I'm tired." They had been trying and failing to get into the Digiworld for the past few hours. Nothing had worked. The gate remained stubbornly shut.

"It's never been like this before," Izzy said anxiously. "I e-mailed Mimi just yesterday, and she replied saying that it was the same in America. At the moment, not a single Digidestinied has been able to get through."

"This is a waste of time," Tai said grumpily. "My holiday is going to end in two weeks, and I do need to study, or I'm going to fail all my courses."

"Tai? Talking about studying? Will wonders never cease."

"Shut up, Matt."

"So what are we going to do next?" Kabuterimon spoke up from under the table, where most of their partner Digimon were gathered, merely watching the Digidestinied attempts to break through to the Digiworld.

"I'll try hacking into the Digiworld," Izzy said thoughtfully.

"Will that work?"

Izzy shook his head. "I've tried it before quite a number of times, but I don't see the harm in trying it once more."

"That's dumb," Matt said matter-of-factly. "One, we know for sure that someone's messing with the Digiworld. Two, that someone has blocked off all access to the Digiworld. Why don't we try to find that someone instead of wasting our time doing this?"

"That's a good point," Joe agreed vaguely, not looking up from his book. "This is really a waste of time."

"Oh, stop studying for a moment, it won't kill you," Tai said, snatching Joe's book away.

"Sometimes it seems just like the old days," Sora sighed, watching Joe chase Tai around the room for his book. "He never grows up, does he?"

"I _wish _it were the old days," Izzy said darkly. "Things were far less complicated then."

&

Kouichi couldn't sleep. He felt exhausted, and would have liked to just drift off to sleep, but he couldn't seem to get himself to fall asleep. He didn't know what time it was, but guessed about three hours had passed since he had gotten into bed. Frustrated, he sat up in bed, pulling aside the hangings around the bed and staring out into the dorm.

Everything was quiet. With a sigh, Kouichi got up and wandered over to a side table where a jug of water stood. As he took several sips of water, something in his head told him that it would be a very good idea to take a walk in the Forbidden Forest. When he realised what he had thought of, he gave a small snort. Either he really needed some sleep, or the discoveries of the past few days were extremely disturbing. Probably both reasons, though.

"Hey," a small voice said. Kouichi looked down to see Wormmon looking up at him. The Digimon partners of Davis and Ken's group had been introduced to the other Digidestinied, and everyone trusted each other now.

"Can't sleep?"

Kouichi shook his head. "You?"

"I don't want to."

"Don't you need to sleep?"

"No, not really. Younger Digimon of course need more rest, but as Digimon grow stronger and older, they don't need as much rest."

Kouichi hadn't known that. "Hey, Wormmon?"

"What?"

"Wanna go for a walk?"

"Where?"

"The Forbidden Forest."

"Erm… Is that allowed?"

"No."

"OK, I'll come along then."

The castle was silent, except for the occasional cough or snore from portraits, and ghosts peacefully gliding along the dark corridors. All Kouichi knew that something was telling him to go to the Forbidden Forest. Why, he didn't know. He just followed his instincts. Over the years, he had learnt to trust his instincts – and this was just one of those situations.

Wormmon followed close behind him, moving without a sound. Kouichi glanced down at him.

"What if Ken wakes up and finds you gone?"

"I normally go off on my own at night to meet V-mon and the others, so he'll be used to it."

"Aren't you guys afraid of being caught?"

"Digimon know how to conceal themselves from humans, don't worry."

The gigantic front doors were closed but not locked. Kouichi paused uncertainly before them, unsure if to push them open manually or simply use magic, but then there was a tiny beep and the doors opened of their own accord. He stared, then realised what had made the beep. His D-Tector.

Pulling the black device out of his pocket, he squinted at the screen. The screen was blank except for a single, blinking dot in a far corner.

"Follow the dot?" Wormmon suggested quietly.

"Sounds good."

Kouichi stepped outside, and the doors swung shut behind them. The night air was cool and breezy, and he felt the wind blow about his hair as he held out his D-Tector, moving his arm in a wide arc over the grounds. The blinking dot faded as he pointed it towards the direction of the castle, but grew stronger when it was directed towards the Forest.

"There's something in the Forest," Wormmon whispered.

Kouichi didn't answer, but started to walk across the grounds, D-Tector held out. He soon reached the Forest. Forcing himself not to think about the many creatures that roamed the Forest when it was dark, he plunged straight into the dense trees, Wormmon following with a slight squeal.

For nearly half an hour he walked through the thick undergrowth with absolutely no sense of direction, ignoring his common sense that was practically screaming at him to turn back. Wormmon was less confident now, and had taken to riding upon his shoulder, staring in every direction.

The dot was blinking more insistently now, with tiny, high-pitched beeps. Kouichi stared at it for a moment, thinking…

Then the dot disappeared. Wormmon let out a squeak.

"Are we lost? And I think that something's following us."

"Nobody's following us, it's just the normal sounds you'll hear at night," Kouichi lied. He hadn't been paying much attention to his surroundings; he had been intently focused upon the blinking dot.

"There's something up ahead…" Wormmon muttered. "Help."

Kouichi transferred his D-Tector to his left hand and pulled out his wand. Suddenly, a ball of light appeared among the trees, its light not even obstructed by all the thick plants.

"Digimon!" Wormmon gasped. Kouichi gave a start.

"Are you sure?" He ran straight ahead, blasting and slashing at the thick bushes with his wand as he went. Then, suddenly he stumbled upon a small clearing, where the light was shining most brightly. Wormmon jumped to the ground.

"Kouichi," a familiar voice said, apparently from the ball of light.

Kouichi hadn't heard that voice in years. "Ophanimon?" he gasped. "Is that you?"

"The Digiworlds are in trouble," Ophanimon continued. "You and your friends are our only hope, for the cause of all this is one of your number, in the human world. If you do not do this, the clash between the worlds will be disastrous…"

"What are you talking about? Ophanimon?"

"I cannot say more, you must find out for yourself. Remember, the clash between the worlds will be disastrous…"

Too soon the light faded, and Kouichi nearly yelled in frustration. "Ophanimon? Ophanimon! Come back!"

"There's something on the ground," Wormmon said in a strange voice. "Look."

Kouichi looked down and gave a gasp. "The D-Tectors!" Sure enough, the five D-Tectors belonging to Takuya, Kouji, Zoe, J.P and Tommy were there, lying innocently on the leafy ground. He gathered them up and examined each one of them. They were real, no doubt about that.

He pulled out his own, and this time he felt the difference. He had his Spirits back!

"Practising magic at this ungodly hour?" a cackling voice came from somewhere behind him.

Kouichi whipped around and stared straight into the wrinkled and smirking face of Filch, who grinned sadistically as he held his lantern up high. "Been following up since you got into the Forest. Not very bright for a Slytherin, eh? And I thought that Slytherins were the ones with brains _not _to get caught."

Kouichi just stared back at him wordlessly, sensing Wormmon zip into the bushes to hide. Why had he been so careless? Oh, right. The dot.

"What's that in your hands?" Filch asked shrewdly, nodding towards the D-Tectors Kouichi was holding. "Lemme see those things. If it's one of them joke stuff again, boy… Won't I love to expel you?"

Kouichi was just wondering whether to make a run for it or curse Filch right in the face when he heard a shout.

"_Stupefy!"_

Filch fell backwards, body stiff and immobile. Kouichi stared, then looked up as Draco and Ken came crashing through the trees.

"What," Draco panted, wand held out, "where you thinking to go off without telling us?"

"Wormmon!" Ken scooped Wormmon up from the ground. "Are you okay?"

"Ken heard you two leave the dorm, and woke me up," Draco explained, looking testily at Kouichi. "We thought that we would just let you wander off on your own without alerting you to our presence, just to see what the hell you had in your head."

"Bit twisted, aren't you?" Kouichi said, staring. "Did you Stun Filch?"

"Yeah, and you're welcome. Whatcha doing with all those Digivices?"

"They're my team's. I… sorta found them here. Well, Ophanimon appeared and gave them to me."

"That Angel Digimon?"

"Yeah."

Kouichi stuffed the D-Tectors into his pocket, leaving only his own in his hand. "And I think I've got my Spirits back."

"You mean those things that help you Digivolve?"

"Yeah. I never thought that I would see them again."

"Well, I can guarantee you guys that if we stay here any longer we won't even live to see daylight again," Draco said, glancing around. "I hate the Forest but I seem to always find myself here when I'm wandering around, somehow. And I can give you a huge list of all the Forest creatures that come out at night hungry."

"Point taken." Ken looked down at Filch. "But what about him?"

"Leave him here to be eaten? Believe me, I'm tempted."

"Very funny, Draco," Kouichi said, rolling his eyes. Then he glanced at the other two. "Do you guys know the way out of here?"

"You totally went off the track for half an hour, Kimura, and you don't even bother to remember where you walked?"

"It's going to be five soon," Ken noted. "I don't think we're going to get any more sleep tonight, but I want to at least rest. Can we get moving now? At this rate we're going to be back only by breakfast. And we have to drag Filch along too…"

"You guys fancy the idea of a shortcut?" Kouichi suddenly asked, a mischevious grin spreading over his face, his hand automatically positioning his D-Tector, a sort of a natural reflex he hadn't performed in years.

"Digi-Beast Spirit, EVOLUTION!"

&

Kouichi hadn't felt happier in years. It took only a moment for him to get accustomed to Jagerlowemon's form, but as soon as the feeling came back to him he was easily leaping over the trees, landing in the higher branches, then taking off again. Forcing back an urge to give a growl, he leapt down into the clearer area right at the edge of the Forest, and just only remembered to let Draco and Ken slide off gently, with Draco dragging Filch, who was still Stunned.

He reverted back to human form, still grinning widely. "Enjoyed the ride?" he asked brightly.

"Can you try not jumping so much next time?" Ken said, still breathing hard. "It's perfectly fine for you, but not for the riders."

"Sorry. So what are we going to do about Filch?"

"We modify his memories, I can do that." Draco pointed his wand at Filch. "_Obliviate._ Then I'm going to awaken him, and right after that, we run. He's going to be a bit woozy, so we'll have a head's start."

"Sounds like a plan," Ken said, nodding.

"Ready? Three… Two… One… _Enervate. _RUN!!"

&

Luck was on their side, and Kouichi easily managed to slip the D-Tectors back to each of his teammates, all of whom listened to the tale of his previous night's adventures in awe. Kouji was the only one who didn't laugh when he heard about Filch, and Kouichi Digivolving to get them out of the Forest. He hadn't managed to get to them in the morning, as the Slytherins didn't have any combined classes with the Gryffindors at that time, but he did manage to meet up with the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs early. When it was time for lunch, he skipped his meal and straight away went to the Gryffindor table.

"You could have been caught," Kouji said, surly. He wasn't looking straight at Kouichi but he wasn't paying any attention to his lunch either. "Don't go off like that again."

Davis opened his mouth to say something but T.K kicked him under the table.

"I'm sorry if I made you worry," Kouichi said sincerely, lowering his voice. "But I'm perfectly fine."

"I know that Malfoy's just a jerk, but I just can't get over what he said about Voldemort!"

Harry Potter and his two close friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, had arrived at the table, with all three of them bickering up to the point they were oblivious to the stares they were getting.

"He could have just said that to flare you up, Harry…"

"He sounded serious! And why should I not bother about what he's doing? I swore to myself that I'm going to be the one to finish him off…"

"Because you're not a Digidestinied," both Takuya and Davis muttered at the same time. Harry, Ron and Hermione didn't catch what they said, fortunately, but T.K and Kouji kicked them under the table, and the yelps they gave snapped Harry, Ron and Hermione out of their discussion.

"Guys, what did you say Voldemort's up to?" Kari asked, sounding completely innocent.

"Er… Nothing," Harry answered, looking uncomfortable.

"We don't know anything," Hermione said firmly. "We just heard a rumor-" Ron gave an extremely fake cough "-that Voldemort might be up to something again."

"What if he's really up to something?" Kari asked, still sounding like an innocent, curious child. She was good at wheedling information out of people even when they least wanted to talk about it. "Are you guys going to fight him or something?"

"Most probably," Harry said firmly. "I won't just let him carry out his twisted plans so easily. I've stopped him a few times before, and I'm not going to hesitate to do it again." With that he walked off to the other end of the table, farther away from the Japanese students. Hermione and Ron followed with slight exasperated looks.

"This is bad," T.K said, once they were out of hearing range. "Unlike them, we know for sure that someone is meddling with the Digiworld, that Voldemort is up to something fishy, and that Death Eaters have something to do with all the Digimon sightings. Anyone with common sense will put two and two together and figure out that Voldemort is messing with the Digiworld. If they find out about it, the Digiworld may be in even greater danger."

"And there's something that has been bothering me," Kouji said suddenly. "Why is the Digiworld called the _Digital _World when we've found out that all the Digidestinieds we know of are actually wizards? Why not Muggles?"

"Wrong name, maybe?" Takuya suggested, half-laughing.

"There might be more to this than what we think," Kari said, seriously now, dropping her innocent, child-like curiousity. "And until we figure out what it is, it's best that we watch our backs, because if the Digiworld and the Digimon are the first targets, we Digidestinied might very well be the second."

"Hey guys." The Gryffindors turned to see the other Digidestinied from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw coming towards them – Yolei, Zoe, J.P and Tommy. Evidently they had just finished their lunch in a hurry.

"This must mean something," Zoe said the moment they reached the table and squeezed into any empty spaces on the bench that they could find. "We get our Digivices back, there are so many Digimon sightings, Japan is going chaotic with all the Digimon and Death Eaters… And we're all stuck here in Hogwarts and unable to do anything."

"You sound like Takuya," Tommy said with a grin, making Zoe blush.

"I do not!"

"Tai and the others should be able to handle all the Digimon sightings," Kari said quietly. "But all of them have their studies to attend to, and apparently they can't open the gate to the Digiworld. They don't understand it either."

"I wish I were back in Japan," Takuya said, frustrated. "Do you think there's any way for us to… You know, get back to Japan to investigate?"

"Great. That'll be easy. All we need to do is find a way to sneak out of Hogwarts, find transport back to Japan, fight the Digimon, fight Voldemort, survive the fight, get back to Hogwarts, pretending that we never did anything of the sort, all the while without letting anyone find out what we're up to. Sounds really easy," Kouji said sarcastically, his voice unusually edgy and spiteful.

"Hey, guys." Two more students arrived at the Gryffindor table – Draco Malfoy and Ken Ichijouji. "So this is why you rushed off without even eating anything," Draco said to Kouichi, rolling his eyes. "You sure are dedicated, aren't you?"

"Kouji's worse. Appreciate it," Takuya put in, as if he was trying to get back at Kouji for his earlier sarcasm.

"There's something I need to tell you guys," Draco said, looking around. "I was going to gather everyone in the evening, but since everyone's here, I guess I might as well go ahead and do it now."

"Good, something new," Kari said, sounding relieved. "Go on."

"I – Well…" Draco looked uncertain, but went on anyway, speaking as though he couldn't really control his words. "My family has always been in Voldemort's inner circle, and I know a lot about Voldemort, and that he's going to use the Digiworld to expand his influence. Dumbledore knows about this as well, he's pretty much guessed what's going on, and I know that he doesn't know much about the Digiworld, but he _does _know that it exists. And then he did what he always does - bring the younger people involved out of the way so he can take care of everything himself, and in this case it's you guys, that's why all Digidestinied around the world are being watched over. Don't ask me, I don't know how he managed to locate the Digidestinied – but apparently Japan's Digidestinied are the only ones he moved, because your schools don't have hostels and high enough security. Basically, he just wants you guys here so he can watch over you, and prevent you from fighting Voldemort when he attacks – and right enough, apparently Voldemort's focusing all his attention on Japan."

A very blank silence greeted this long explanation. Kouichi was the first to speak.

"Since when have you known all this?"

Draco turned red and looked fixedly at the floor. "Er…"

"He's known everything for a long time, but he didn't trust you guys," came another voice. Cho Chang arrived at the table and patted Draco on the shoulder. "He doesn't trust anyone much, come to think of it. I made him tell you guys everything he knows." She shot them all a humourless grin. "So I take it that he just did?"

"Well, I didn't think that _all _the transfer students would be Digidestinied," Draco defended himself. "I thought that only some of them would be, to prevent any suspicions."

Their section of the table was getting very crowded now, and none of the Gryffindors were getting on much with their lunches, but nobody cared. "So what do we do?" Tommy asked. "Go back to Japan, because that's where we need to be? We're Digidestinieds, and it's our responsibility to protect the Digiworld, not Dumbledore's."

"Good point." Yolei gave everyone a crooked grin. "Let's go back to Japan."

"What? Now?"

"What else? The Digiworld's in trouble _now_!"

"But…"

"Look, what's more important – the Digiworld, or getting into trouble at school?"

There was a murmur of agreement, which was broken up seconds later by yet another visitor – this time an unwelcomed one. Professor McGonagall arrived, looking rather annoyed and furious. "What are all of you doing here at the Gryffindor table? Don't you have your own House tables? Go back!"

&

**I hate this chapter**


	12. Chapter 12

**I rewrote the ending of the previous chapter. I thought it was too rushed, so I decided to change it. But I still hate that chapter, though. As a matter of fact, I hate the way I wrote this fic.**

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Chapter 12

"You have got to be kidding me."

"I'm not. Look."

Fred gingerly took the letter from George, holding it as if it might explode anytime. He frowned, staring at the short message as though not really understanding it. "If this is fake, it's a really good fake," he commented. "Are you sure it's real?"

George, Fred, and Lee were in the twins' darkened shop – they had closed just over an hour ago, and with the help of the Digimon, cleaning up and counting the remaining stocks took very little time.

"Of course it's real, dumbass." George glanced at his Digimon partner, Lopmon, who was busy sucking on a huge lollipop. "You have to admit, it'll be great getting back together again, only that I'll have to get used to Draco, after years of pretending to hate the little brat."

"Really? I thought you hated him for real." Fred snorted, passing the letter to Lee Jordan, who took it with equal scepticism.

"It's been so long – how many years? Seven, right?" George sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"Seven years is a lot of time for people to change," Lee said with a snort. "Apparently we've been a bad influence on Draco and Cho. Will you believe it? They're going to break out of Hogwarts and go to Japan with the Japanese Digidestinieds Dumbledore moved here? And I thought that Cho was the sensible one of our lot."

"I don't believe it either," Fred agreed. "But what I do believe is, they're gonna need a lot of luck. But since they asked for help, they'll get it."

&

Professor Slughorn was going on and on about one of his ex-students, who apparently was such a good potioneer that he was hired by St Mungo's right after he left Hogwarts to help brew some of the most complicated potions, but less than half of the class was listening. Slughorn either didn't notice or pretended not to, and the discussion taking place at the back of the classroom went quite smoothly.

At one table, Kouichi, Kouji, Takuya and Draco had given up all pretense of actually listening to Slughorn and were deep in discussion.

"Are you serious? How are we supposed to even leave Hogwarts without alerting Dumbledore? He's not stupid, he'll know that we'll attempt something like that. And if we're caught, he's going to keep an even closer watch on us."

"We'll be allowed to go to Hogsmeade this Saturday. We'll do it then."

"Won't Dumbledore be watching us even more if we're given the chance to leave Hogwarts?" Kouji said sceptically. He still was the same reasonable and calculative person he had been years ago when he had been to the Digiworld. He hadn't changed much – but then again, none of the Digidestinied had changed much.

Draco and Kouichi glanced at each other, having discussed it earlier in their dorm. "Cho and I spoke about it last evening," Draco said easily. "If you've gotten to know Fred, George and Lee, you'll learn quite a lot about these sort of things."

"What sort of things?" Kouji asked warily. In front of them, the potion they were supposed to be brewing had stopped bubbling, the fire under the cauldron long extinguished. None of them paid any attention to it. Kouichi wasn't even sure what they were supposed to be doing. Earlier in the lesson, Draco had simply dumped half the ingredients into the cauldron half full with water, and lit a tiny fire, and then completely ignored it.

"You'll see," Draco said evasively. "By the way, I checked with Professor Snape – we'll be allowed to go to Hogsmeade this Saturday, but the notices aren't up yet. That's when we'll do it."

"Wait, you and Cho want to come along?" Kouji interrupted. "Won't it be safer if you guys stayed here? That way, if we got caught, you and Cho won't get into trouble at school. It doesn't matter to us because it's not _our _school…"

Draco grinned slyly. "Our Digimon are in Diagon Alley. That's where we'll head first. You can't tell us to stay away. Besides, you don't know the area as well as we do."

At the table beside them, Davis, T.K, Ken and Kari weren't focusing much on their potion either; they were over-boiling their salamandar blood, which had turned into a strange diluted yellow liquid. However they were discussing another topic – the older Digidestinied back in Japan. Kari and T.K remained in contact with their older brothers frequently, and helped to transmit the news to either sides.

"They still can't get through to the Digiworld," T.K said absently. "Izzy says that Mimi has the same problem in America, so it's highly probable that all Digidestinied around the world are facing the same thing."

"And Izzy wants to try other methods of getting through," Kari added. "But he didn't specify what. If Voldemort is really messing with the Digiworld, then he could have done something to the gates so that Digidestinied won't be able to get through and stop him. Whatever he's doing, I hope that the Digimon are okay," she added worriedly. "It's been ages since we last went to the Digiworld, isn't it? We were so busy with school and stuff…"

"Have they tried the Dark Ocean?" Ken said suddenly. "It's connected to the Digiworld, so we might find some clues there."

"That's brilliant," Davis put in. "Only that you're the only one who can open the gate to the Dark Ocean… Hey, that's a good one! Why don't we try to go to the Dark Ocean from here? It's part of the Digiworld, after all, so we should be able to find something connecting them, and get to the Digiworld!"

"The Dark Ocean?" Kari shuddered slightly. "For some reason, I don't really like the sound of that, but I guess if that's what we have to do, we'll do it. Only… Open the Dark Ocean? Here? Don't we need some kind of a portal? I doubt that there'll be a portal in such a highly magical place like Hogwarts."

"Then what are we going to do then? If we-" T.K stopped, suddenly aware that Slughorn wasn't talking anymore – instead he was going from table to table, checking the progress of the potions of each group. "Shit."

T.K normally never swore, but when he did, it meant that they were in big trouble. Half an hour later, however, the class had ended and the Digidestinied were walking up to the Great Hall, Kari having sweet-talked Slughorn with a variety of the oddest excuses as to why they hadn't completed their potions. The moment they were a distance away from the other students, Davis pulled Takuya aside and asked the latter about the Dark Ocean.

"The Dark what?" came the bewildered reply.

"You don't know the Dark Ocean?" Davis asked, taken aback. "You know, the World of Darkness? The place with the big empty back sea, with the creepy beach and forest?"

"Davis, we've been through this, the Digiworld that they know is different from the one that we know." Ken joined in the conversation. Suddenly a thought came to him. "Say, Takuya, when did you guys go to the Digiworld?"

Takuya gave a small start. "Er… About five years ago, I suppose. Why? Is that important?"

"It is. We went to the Digiworld five years ago too." Ken frowned. "It's impossible that there were two teams of Digidestinied wandering about the Digiworld at the same time, so it could be that there is more than one Digiworld. How many times can the same Digiworld get into trouble anyway? Draco, when did you go to the Digiworld?"

"Seven years ago," he said casually, a slight edge to his voice – Harry, Ron and Hermione had just walked past them, deep in discussion as well, but not deep enough for Ron to turn around and flip Draco an obscene gesture, which Draco responded to with the same sign, making Kouichi hurriedly pull Draco aside to prevent any fights.

"Then who was your enemy?"

"Lucemon," Takuya said with a slight scowl.

"Millenniummon," Draco said at the same time.

"Myotismon," Davis added, just as Takuya and Draco were staring at each other.

"Wait, you fought Millenniummon?" Ken cut in, sounding astonished. "But-"

"Who's Lucemon?"

"You _know _Millenniummon?" Davis said, turning to Ken in surprise.

"We fought Myotismon _twice-_"

"But we weren't the first to fight Lucemon either-"

"You had to fight Millenniummon too?"

"_Everyone stop it_!" Kari suddenly shouted, and all the boys broke off and looked guiltily at her. "Don't you guys know how to speak in turns? We're not getting anywhere, nor learning anything if you keep at it. Now," she said, looking unusually fierce, "we'll wait until we've gathered everyone and we'll see what everyone has come up with."

They did as she said, with all the former Digidestinied meeting up in the school's back yards as soon as the lessons for the day were over. The Slytherins came first, they had had a free period before that. The Hufflepuffs boys came next; Zoe and Yolei were meeting up with Cho, since Yolei and Cho had Transfiguration together during the last period. The Gryffindors came fifteen minutes late, at a run – they had been held back by Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"I hate Snape," was Takuya's first comment as he plopped down on the grass next to Zoe. "He wouldn't let us leave until everyone had finished their essays."

"Be careful," Draco said warningly. "He's a spy for Dumbledore – Well, at least I think so anyway. I'm not sure whose side he's on, but whoever he's working for, we have to be careful. We don't want either Dumbledore or Voldemort knowing what we're doing."

"So what _are _we doing anyway?"

A number of the group had moved naturally into the position of leaders – Draco and Cho, who seemed to be the only ones with the daring to break out of Hogwarts, Davis, Ken, Takuya and Kouji, the natural leaders of their respective groups, Kouichi, the only one who had encountered a Digimon so far, and T.K and Kari, who had the most experience. However, Kouji and Ken were more content to listen to the other's suggestions, offering only rather realistic advice to counter Davis and Takuya's, and Cho being more sensible.

"There's going to be a trip to Hogsmeade this Saturday," Draco said coolly. "Basically, they let us out in the morning, and obviously they'll be checking us when we leave, but we're free to go back whenever we want as long as it's before dark. And we're allowed to go anywhere we want within the village. Cho and I have discussed it briefly, we've got a general plan, but it'll be up to you guys to decide the details."

Cho took over from here. "We'll all leave for Hogsmeade in small groups early in the morning," she began. "We'll plan a diversion that appears to involve Digimon on the side of Hogsmeade farthest from Hogwarts, which hopefully will draw the teachers and crowds there, and away from us as we get out oc here. We'll go to Diagon Alley first, before moving on to Japan. What happens next is up to you guys."

T.K spoke up next. "Once we get to Japan, Kari and I should go over to our older brothers – Tai and Matt. We'll contact them later, to tell them to get ready to meet us. They've been working on reprogramming the portal to the Digiworld. If it works, then we'll use that portal. And Ken will try to open the portal to the Dark Ocean, where we might find some clues as to what's going on."

"And we're going to the train station in Shibuya," Takuya chimed in. "If the Digiworld's in trouble, the Trailmon _should _be there. If not… Well… We'll see what happens next."

"No," Kouichi said suddenly, his voice so deathly quiet that everyone sitting near him was startled. "That's not going to work at all. The first thing we do, is we look for Voldemort and get answers out of him. He's blocked the the Digiworld, but the portal cannot be locked if there's a human in the Digiworld, only closed temporarily. If the portal is locked, we look for him in the real world. If we can't find him, we'll just get him to come to us."

Everyone stared at him, lost for words. Kouji jumped up. "How did you know about the portal?" he demanded. "Kouichi, are you _okay_?"

Now the group's attention was solely focused on the twins. Kouichi stood up too. "I'm fine," he said, looking surprised at Kouji's outburst. "What are you talking about?"

"You know what I mean. Ever since we came to Hogwarts, you've been acting off."

"Kouji-"

Kouji suddenly reached out and grabbed Kouichi's wrist. Before Kouichi could protest, Kouji was already dragging him off, away from the group, towards the Forbidden Forest. The others stared at the pair in confused silence, until Takuya spoke lightly.

"Typical Kouji."

&

Kouji only released his hold on his brother the moment they were surrounded by tall, dense trees. Kouichi stared at his brother. Kouji rarely got so agitated, and normally when he did, it was about these few things – Kouichi, their parents and Kouichi. It was getting annoying, Kouichi had to admit, but had let his younger brother go on with his incessant worrying over him. Sometimes it seemed that Kouji was the protective older brother, not Kouichi, who preferred to watch out for Kouji from afar and only help if needed.

"What was that about?" Kouichi said, trying not to sound annoyed. "Are _you _okay?"

"You know what I mean," Kouji repeated steely. "I hate to say this, Kouichi, but… Is Duskmon coming back?"

"What?" Kouichi gave a start, feeling the usual pangs of regret he had never really gotten over with. This time he was more worried for Kouji than for himself, and managed to maintain calm. "Kouji, I don't feel anything different. You should stop worrying so much, it's not good. It's just that I-"

"I don't want to lose you again," Kouji snapped, and suddenly Kouichi realised that Kouji actually sounded scared… Kouichi had known long ago that the tough and silent Kouji was only a façade around people he didn't trust. Kouichi reached out and grabbed Kouji's shoulder firmly.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said firmly.

"Hey."

It was Draco Malfoy. He had followed them into the Forest. For some reason, he looked very white. "There's something I need to tell you guys," he said shakily.

Kouichi's concern moved to Draco from Kouji. Draco looked as if he was extremely sick, he looked so white. "What's wrong?"

"Voldemort knows about you guys," he said, his voice trembling. "I'm so sorry… He knew about Dumbledore's plan to move the Digidestinieds to Hogwarts, but he didn't know who… He threatened to kill my parents if I didn't tell him about you. And I did, I told him that Dumbledore brought over a group of Japanese students… And he made me put the Imperius Curse on Kouichi, but I didn't do it very well, that's why he attacked you, Kouji…" He turned towards a tree and leant his forehead against it. "Damn it," he mumbled. "I'm no use as a Digidestinied."

Before Kouichi could think of a suitable reaction to this confession, Kouji reacted, lunging forward and punching Draco in the face, moving so fast that neither Draco nor Kouichi had time to respond. Belatedly, Kouichi grabbed Kouji and for a while the two of them had a quite silent scuffle before Kouji stopped struggling and they broke apart, panting hard.

"Sorry," Kouji said rigidly, straightening up. Then, looking at Draco, as though expecting what the latter would say, he said quietly, "Now's not the time for the others to hear that. Just focus on helping us to get back to Japan, 'kay?" Then, without a backwards glance, he stalked off back to where the others were waiting.

Kouichi glanced after Kouji and decided to ignore him for the time being; he was all too familiar with Kouji's sulking, especially when he had just lost his temper. He turned back to Draco. "I'm sorry about that," he said quietly. "Kouji's right, though. It's not the time for that now."

Draco sighed. "I was the youngest in my group when we went to the Digiworld, and they made it clear that they weren't going to watch my back for me all the time. Don't get me wrong – Fred, George, Lee and Cho are great people. And that was when I learnt to be independent. They taught me a lot, things that I wouldn't have learnt if I hadn't been a Digidestinied. And now that they're not with me, I mess up."

"Look, I would have done the same as you," Kouichi said, in that quietly firm tone he normally used when he wanted to reason with Kouji. "If anyone threatened Kouji, my parents, or even my friends, I would have done anything to protect them. Besides, we _are _Digidestinied after all – we can take care of ourselves."

Draco forced a small smile. "You're good at persuading people, you know that?"

Kouichi grinned. "Comes with the territory, especially if you have someone like Kouji for a younger brother. I'm sorry that he hit you… But he's actually a nice person if you get to know him," he ended loyally. "Now, come on, we need to get back to the others and continue with our planning."

They left the dark trees together, but Draco pulled back. When Kouichi looked questioningly at him, Draco gestured towards a small group walking down from the castle. After a while, Kouichi recognised them as the three Gryffindors Draco particularly hated. If he was correct, the redhead was the younger brother of Fred and George…

"They're going to Hagrid's," Draco whispered.

Kouichi had only met Hagrid once, and on that occasion it was because he and Draco had been caught in the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid hadn't seemed like a person to hate at that time, but Kouichi never really dared to greet Hagrid – apparently Hagrid was more of a Gryffindor. Takuya and the other Gryffindors, however, knew him quite well. Kouichi watched as Harry, Ron and Hermione went up to Hagrid's cabin, knocked, and entered.

"Let's go!"

"Where?"

Draco pulled at Kouichi's hand. "I want to see what they're doing."

"Isn't that… rude?" Kouichi said uncertainly, before realising that Draco probably didn't care if what he did was rude or polite, especially when it invovled Gryffindors. With Draco leading the way and Kouichi following hesitantly, they crept up to the vegetable patch behind Hagrid's house, where they were hidden from sight in all directions. At Draco's urging, they went right up to a high window on one side and crouched beneath it, Kouichi having more and more doubts about what he was doing.

To his shock, they were just on the other side of the window, so it was easy to hear what they were talking about. Kouichi had a feeling that this wasn't Draco's first time eavesdropping here, but didn't dare to point it out. Instead, he just focused his attention on the discussion – and was even more surprised.

"- and that brat Malfoy hinted to us that Voldemort is up to something, but he wants us to stay out of it. I'll say that it's a very poor attempt on his part to keep us away. He's been acting strange lately. I don't understand why he's so close to – what's his name again?"

"Kouichi Kimura," came Hermione's voice. "Kouji's twin brother."

"Then why do they have different last names?"

"Ron, we've been through this, it's probably their private matters so don't pry."

Under the window, Draco shot Kouichi a what-did-I-tell-you look. Kouichi shrugged and went back to listening.

"Look ere, I know that the three of yeh don't trust the non-Gryffindor Japanese much, but it's not good ter keep on talkin' about them behind their backs like this. I've spoken to the Gryffindor ones, and they're decent folk. Very respectful too, the lot."

"And remember, Kouichi's partly a Gryffindor too," Hermione's voice said firmly.

"But's he's so close to Malfoy."

"Anyway, back to the topic of Voldemort," came Harry's voice. He sounded rather insistent. "Hagrid, did Dumbledore ever mention anything about him? I'm sure you at least have a general idea of what Dumbledore suspects about Voldemort. We've discussed it so much, but we can't figure out anything."

"It's got nothin' to do with yeh," Hagrid said at once. "I meself don't know what Dumbledore's thinking, too… He's pretty mum on this, hasn't let many of the Order know anyway."

"The Digiworld?" Kouichi mouthed to Draco, who nodded distractedly.

"I can't just sit here knowing that Voldemort's doing something and I'm pretty much useless here," Harry was saying in frustration. "And I hate the way Malfoy looks at me nowadays… Like he knows so much more than I do."

"Well, his dad is a Death Eater, of course he'll know," Ron said at once. Hidden beneath the window Kouichi gave Draco a look, but Draco shrugged it off, looking sheepish. "And he's probably one himself…"

"As much as I hate Malfoy, I don't think that he'll want to be a Death Eater," Hermione responded. "He's bad, but not evil. I can't imagine him as a Death Eater."

"Fred and George used to call him 'little brat' to his face," Ron put in, chuckling. "I never knew until I found them teasing him in the corridor. Suits him, you know. Spoilt, rich kid, with everything that he wants chucked right at him… He'll never know what it means to work hard, all he deserves is to be stuffed down the throat of a Blast-Ended Skrewt…"

Kouichi had to lunge at Draco, who looked so indignant that he was almost about to jump up. Deciding that it was enough spying for the day, Kouichi silently dragged Draco away from the cabin and back towards where the others were still waiting. After a while, though, both of them began to grin in amusement.

"_Little brat_?"

"Yeah, they did that," Draco said with a sheepish smile.

Kouichi grinned, and the two of them began to laugh, their problems temporarily forgotten.

&

**For some reason I really hate this fic.**

**Ken**


	13. Chapter 13

**For those who actually bothered to read this far, I'm sure that you would have noticed that my style of writing has changed a lot. This is why I haven't been updating; I hated my previous chapters and I wasn't sure if I should continue writing in the same way or in the way I write in now. Sorry for the looong wait.  


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**Kouichi couldn't help feeling slightly guilty as Saturday approached, when they had decided to break out of Hogwarts. The plan seemed rather risky to him, but Draco and Cho, who had planned everything, seemed confident. Draco had assured him that Fred and George had successfully run away from the school before the previous year, and after asking a few other students, Kouichi couldn't help but feel rather mixed range of expressions when he learnt about how the twins had played the prank on the former Headmistress – whom apparently most Slytherins liked. And he felt nothing good.

He wasn't the only one feeling nervous. The others too had mixed reactions – they all wanted to help the Digiworld, but running away from school just didn't feel right. Kouichi supposed that they had no choice now, since they already knew that it was Voldemort's doing. They wouldn't have felt happy just sitting there in Hogwarts anyway. But Draco and Cho hadn't explained everything – they had only given them the general instructions.

He hadn't much chance to speak to Kouji lately, but he had a feeling that Kouji was avoiding him. Normally when this happened, Kouichi would have immediately gone to him and persuaded him to snap out of his bad mood, but this time he didn't. Not that he didn't want to, but Draco had told him to let Kouji cool off on his own. They had had a small argument over this, but in the end Kouichi relented – Takuya could try to take care of it this time, leaving Kouichi to focus on preventing Draco from doing anything stupid.

"So are you planning to even tell us exactly what you and Cho are going to pull off?" Kouichi asked Draco firmly, the moment their lessons were over for the day. Draco smiled at him in what was apparently suppsed to be a reassuring way, but to Kouichi the smile just seemed cheeky.

"Er... Draco?"

"Yes?"

"Are you okay?"

Draco just smiled. "I'm perfectly fine. Why would I be otherwise?"

Kouichi stared. "You're scary."

"I know I am."

Saturday morning came too soon, and as planned, they left in small groups of three to five, grouped according to their Houses. Kouichi, Ken and Draco were the last to leave – mainly because Draco seemed in no hurry at all and relatively relaxed, as if in full confidence of what they were about to do. Kouichi wasn't as reassured – not only were they breaking out of school, they were also about to deceive Albus Dumbledore, the most powerful wizard in England. Even a fool would feel uneasy if placed in their situation.

Their plan was pretty vague. Each group would gather near certain areas where they had the best view of the whole village, and when a signal appeared in the sky. Draco hadn't specified what the signal would be – "It's just something extraordinary that you wouldn't expect to see" – and then they were supposed to Disapparate to the Leaky Cauldron in London. Draco and Cho had refused to give them details, as "if they knew what would happen they would just chicken out" and Draco added, rather mischeviously, it would take all the fun out of the plan. The Digimon partners of the Fire Academy students would be joining them shortly after all of them had left, under Disillusion Charms to avoid detection. They were confident that the Digimon would be able to pass through the magical barrier around Hogwarts, but doubted that they would be able to make it undetected, but Draco had advised them that if they were detected, it would help the plan greatly. "Just don't get caught," Cho had advised them later.

The caretaker, Filch, seemed in a rather bad mood today, but Draco assured them it was merely because the students were looking excited at the thought of a day out of Hogwarts. The caretaker grumpily checked their names off a long list that was trailing to the ground, and they left the school grounds with a small crowd of overly excited Hufflepuff third-years. Kouichi glanced around – not a single other Digidestinied was in sight. He hoped that it meant that they were all safely out of the Hogwarts compounds by now.

As soon as they were out of sight of the other Hogwarts students, Ken pulled out his D-Terminal. There was a small blinking light, indicating an incoming text message. "The others are moving into position," he announced, scanning through the message Davis had sent him. Davis, as planned, would be with the other Gryffindors – Takuya, T.K, Kari and Kouji – outside the Three Broomsticks. The Hufflepuffs would be near Honeydukes accompanied by Cho, while the Slytherins would follow Draco to the Shrieking Shack where Draco would set off the signal. They would have to delay leaving as long as they could, an attempt to assure the teachers – it was too much of a hope that they would be able to fool Dumbledore – into thinking that they weren't planning to do anything of the sort.

Kouichi couldn't help staring about Hogsmeade as they made their way through the streets. Hogwarts students were recognisable through their House scarfs and black robes most of them wore. Several times he passed by several rather rare part-human magical creatures, and once they passed a group of goblins haggling with a drunken-looking man outside a bar. The place was incredibly fascinating. Japan had very few wizarding villages, all in the secluded mountain areas, and the wizarding community in cities largely intermingled with Muggles.

It was a whole new experience, and the feeling he was getting right now reminded him of how he felt when he first entered the Digiworld – a mixture of eager fascination and curiousity. The lifestyle of people in Europe was interesting enough; the lifestyle of wizards in Europe even more so. He glanced at his fellow Japanese. Ken seemed equally interested, although Kouichi couldn't help noticing that Ken had his hands deep in his pockets, no doubt holding on to his Digivice and wand.

_When did we all become like this? _Kouichi wondered inwardly with a shudder. Their experiences battling evil in the Digiworld had matured all of them, and Kouichi had found it hard at first not to be so wary and see evil everywhere. It was as if all of them had been planted with a strong sense of justice and the urge to fight for the good. He had only discussed this with Kouji, and his brother had agreed that he felt the same way. Now, with a real-life threat at hand, the feelings were all coming back, the feeling of a deep anger against injustice and the desire to fight evil. It was as if they were... warriors.

_We _are _the Legendary Warriors,_ Kouichi realised. A sudden _thud_ accompanied with a rather colourful word interrupted his train of thought.

"Sorry," Draco said, not sounding sorry at all. Kouichi realised belatedly that they were now standing face to face with Harry and his friends. Harry was glaring daggers at Draco, while Hermione was helping Ron up from where he had previously been sprawled out on the ground. Kouichi smacked his forehead in disbelief. He had never really witnessed beforehand the rivalry between Draco and Harry, but he had heard that the arguments the two had symbolised the very fact that Gyrffindors and Slytherins could not get along well.

"You don't mean that, Malfoy!" Harry retorted, his wand already pointing at Malfoy.

"You can't hex him, Harry!" Hermione cried out. "You'll get into trouble for doing magic outside of school, not to mention attacking another student, even if Malfoy _did _annoy you."

"Well, I _did_ apologise," Draco drawled with a sneer, gesturing at Ron with his wand. "For not being able to notice Weasley. I mean, blood traitors aren't really that worth noticing after all. You can't blame me." At this, Harry flared up, and Kouichi could see that he prepared to shout out a jinx when there was a sudden movement to Draco's right. Ken had pulled out his wand and was pointing it directly at Harry.

"I don't care about what inter-House rivalries you have here in Hogwarts," Ken stated calmly. He could have been presenting Harry a friendly argument over Butterbeer, the way he was speaking. "But what I know is that you have your wand pointing directly at a friend of mine. You can be very sure that I will not hesitate to attack if you attempt to hurt Draco."

Kouichi stared.

"You're just like one of them," Ron spat. It was obvious that the Gryffindor trio were rather on edge about something prior to the encounter with them in the street. All three looked close to losing their cool and the boys looked ready to take anyone on in a duel. "You're a Slytherin, just like the rest of them. No good can come out of you, or any one of you for that matter, if you're mixing with Malfoy. He's bad influence."

"Oh, so I'm a bad influence now, am I?" Draco asked mockingly. "I'm honoured."

Kouichi suppressed a sigh, but pulled out his wand too. "I don't want to fight anyone," he said clearly. "But if it comes to that, I will let you know that I don't mind duelling friend or foe." He knew very well that fighting was wrong, but the warrior inside him was burning, as though his whole self was raring to get into battle once more. He was sure the other two felt the same way. It was like all the frustration at not being able to do anything before this had built up, and was now urging him on.

_No... Wait... That's the Darkness... _

Kouichi struggled to clear his mind. One trait of wizards of the Darkness element was that they had a very strong sense of justice about what they felt was right, and harnessing their inner strength they were able to acheive their goal. There was no hesitation or inner conflict for them. The only problem was that even a small feeling of annoyance could expand into a blown up feeling of anger, which was why they all had a natural inner instinct of discipline and self-control.

It was Hermione who broke up what would have surely been a disastrous duel. "Stop it," she cried out, sounding extremely exasperated. "Are you boys all so much of _dunderheads_ that you have to draw out your wands for every single petty argument? Harry, Ron – let's go get a drink first." It wasn't a request, more of a demand, and the two boys finally lowered their wands, but not without scathing glares directed at all three Slytherins. They disappeared off down the street fairly quickly, at Kouichi heard Hermione and Ron start bickering the moment they moved off.

Ken lowered his wand stiffly. "I know I shouldn't have done that," he said, sounding rather rebellious. "But there's one thing I can't stand about Harry Potter. He reminds me of... someone... from my past. I get the feeling that Harry always attempts to take responsibility for everything. It's... It just makes me angry."

"You feel the same way too?" Draco snorted. "From what I heard, yeah, Harry's that sort of chivalric Gryffindor."

As the tension gradually subsided, they moved on. Kouichi stole a glance at Ken, noticing the rebellious and slightly sulky expression on Ken's face. At Ken's explanation, Kouichi was distinctly reminded of something – no, someone – from his past as well. It made him feel rather shameful and annoyed, but then his irritation overshadowed his shamefulness and he fell into a feeling of moodiness.

_I was such a fool, to be fooled into becoming Duskmon. I was such an idiot. Arghh... I feel like I could hit something right now.. No, no... No! What's going on? Why do I feel so angry all of a sudden?_

"I have a bad feeling about this," Draco muttered, sounding rather edgy. "I don't know why I lost my temper earlier all of a sudden. This is our fight, not theirs. Why must Potter want to step in?"

A shrill _beep _made them all jump. It was the D-Terminal. "The others are all in position," Ken said, his voice strangely calm now, but it was obvious he was fighting hard to keep his cool. "The Hufflepuffs didn't have much trouble, as they have Cho with them. The Gryffindors are okay to go too, just that Harry and his gang are in the Three Broomsticks, so they moved a few shops down the road. So that just leaves us."

"Good," Draco grinned, suddenly taking on a look of cunning. Soon they were outside a rather rundown hut standing miserably by itself among overgrown weeds and bushes. It was starting to snow – the snow had apparently come early that year, and the ground was speckled with white. Draco frowned as he noticed the snowflakes.

"It's not supposed to snow around now," he said quietly.

"The disturbance of the Digiworld?" Ken guessed. "It happens sometimes, causing havoc to the weather in this world."

Draco sighed, and for the first time that day, his face creased into a worry. It was a mark of how worried he actually was. _No_ _matter what the Gryffindors say about him_, Kouichi decided on the spot, _I know Draco actually cares about something. The Digiworld. It's a mark of a true Digidestinied. _

"Ken!" a small, disembodied voice cried out somewhere behind Kouichi, making them all jump. A tap of the wand to lift the Disillusionment Charm, and Wormmon scrambled up onto Ken's shoulder.

"How was it?" Draco asked at once. The confident, jaunty tone he had in his voice was gone now. It was as if there were multiple sides to Draco Malfoy – the mischevious side brought on by the legendary Weasley twins, the serious one associated with the Digiworld, and the aloof one Hogwarts knew.

"I think we caused some sort of disturbance to the magical barrier," Wormmon said uncertainly. "You were right, Draco – the barrier is designed with magical creatures and humans in mind, so we weren't stopped by it, although I don't dare to say that we got through undetected." Suddenly the little green Digimon shuddered. "I don't like it here. There's something wrong... I don't feel quite right..."

"Once we get the okay from the others, I'll set off the signal," Draco said, visibly relaxing slightly now that all of them, Digidestinied and Digimon alike, were out of the school. He settled himself down on a bit of fence that was miraculously still standing, for some reason glancing at the Shrieking Shack with a calculating look on his face. It wasn't long, though, before Ken's D-Terminal beeped. It was the Hufflepuffs, with the short message _We're okay, _meaning that Hawkmon and Armadimon had joined them safely. No sooner that Ken had reported this to his fellow Slytherins that the Gryffindors sent that V-mon, Patamon and Gatomon were with them.

"That's it," Draco exclaimed, jumping up. His face was flushed with excitement and anticipation. He drew out his wand and pointed it at the Shrieking Shack, then upwards at the sky. "Go, go, go!" he shouted, gesturing hard. "People will be coming soon to see!"

A light flared up in the Shrieking Shack. At first Kouichi thought that Draco had set the hut on fire, but a second later, small balls of colourful light flew out of the dirty windows and erupted into brilliants fireworks in the sky, forming the unmistakaeble shape of a huge, capital 'W.' More orbs of light shot out, but there were already screams and shouts of surprise through the village. Ken grabbed on to Wormmon and Disapparated, being most at risk since he had a Digimon with him. Kouichi hesitated, waiting for Draco, and caught the briefest glimpse of what looked like a dragon appear in the blue sky before Draco gestured wildly and the two of them vanised with loud _cracks. _

&&&&

Ron and Hermione bickered all the way to the Three Broomsticks, while Harry walked a little way off sullenly, obviously rather moody about something. They passed by the group of Japanese Gryffindors and entered the warm bar, the soothing and comfortable atmosphere helping slightly with their tempers. They were all rather edgy lately, what with Malfoy taunting them about fighting Voldemort, and Harry, as usual, was annoyed at being left out of the whole affair. They had sent an owl to Remus Lupin as a wild attempt to figure out the truth behind Malfoy's words, but Remus hadn't responded positively.

The trip to Hogsmeade was only made grudgingly, with Hermione deciding firmly that all of them needed a break from studying and worrying about Voldemort. At first their moods managed to lift a little as they left the castle, but once they stepped into Hogsmeade the tension arose as they noticed several Wanted posters of Death Eaters plastering the walls. Running into Malfoy only made it all the more worse.

Hermione slipped off to order drinks, while Harry and Ron found a place in a corner. The place wasn't as crowded as usual, people preferring to stay indoors now that Voldemort was back. Nevertheless Madam Rosmerta had managed to maintain a cheery and comfortable feeling about the bar, and they relaxed slightly. Hermione was soon back with three Butterbeers, and settled down beside Ron.

"You know," Harry said, the moment she had sat down, "I've been thinking about Voldemort."

"Oh, can't we not discuss anything that's going to make us argue all over again?" Hermione sighed, ignoring as Ron gave a little groan at the mention of the name. Despite using the name himself, Ron was never really comfortable with it, only saying the name because Harry and Hermione did.

"But this is important," Harry said stubbornly, swirling his Butterbeer around. "There's been no report of Voldemort himself coming out in the open ever since what happened at the Ministry, and the only thing that qualifies enough to be news about him is all the strange sightings in Japan, and it can't be coincidence that this year we're having Japanese transfer students."

"Coincidence," Hermione said firmly, sounding as though she would very much like the discussion to end as soon as possible. Her idea of dragging them out to Hogsmeade was for them to relax, not pull up more ideas about Voldemort and work themselves up into a fury for no reason at all. "Even though there could be a relation between the two, I don't think that the Japanese students are evil or Dark wizards in any way. Can we continue this later?"

"Kimura and Ichijouji are in Slytherin though," Ron pointed out.

"Not all Slytherin are bad, Ron. Some of them turn out okay enough."

"Let's see... On one hand, we have You-Know-Who, we have the idiot who hid a giant killing snake in school, we have the Malfoys..."

"Well we Gryffindors turned out... traitors as well, so we can't just accuse them," Hermione said, faltering slightly as she realised she was about to mention Pettigrew. She wasn't too sure, but Harry might still be a little edgy about the man who had betrayed his parents. "Which means that the Gryffindor ones have the same chance of going bad as the ones in Slytherin. I don't know much about Ken Ichijouji, but Kouichi Kimura seems quite okay most of the time. I mean, look at Kouji."

"Kouji and Kouichi... How to put it? They're remarkably identical yet unidentical at the same time," Ron said, snorting slightly.

"I get what you mean," Hermione said with a smile. She sipped her Butterbeer. "So... What did you guys think about yesterday's Charms lesson? I personally think that our lesson time should be lengthened, we hardly get enough practice with Flitwick supervising us."

"Don't change the topic, Hermione," Harry said, rolling his eyes. "I mean, what do you guys think about the Japanese students?"

"They could teach us a thing or two about inter-House relations," Hermione said with a small smile. "The way all of them are close friends regardless of their Houses..."

"Inter-House relations?"

"Oh, honestly, don't you remember? The Sorting Hat warned us to stay united..."

"No we don't," Harry and Ron said simultaneously.

"Oh, well... I guess I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up... But anyway..." Hermione cleared her throat, giving up on Harry abandoning the subject of the Dark Lord. _Might as well just tell them what I think._ "What I think is, it's highly improbably that Voldemort would be content with lying low for so long. We all know that last year, he was after a Prophecy. He didn't get it. So now this time, what does he want? His main aim is to take over the wizarding world. To do that, he would need to eliminate his enemies – Dumbledore and the Ministry. He hasn't gotten at either of them yet. Most of his precious Death Eaters are locked away in Azkaban, so what he needs now is more power. That's what he needs to get before he tries anything new. The question is, what kind of power is he seeking, and where?"

"The Giants," Ron said wisely. "Magical creatures that wizards shun."

"Maybe the hags, werewolves, and goodness knows what else," Harry added. "But I'm sure we can leave out centaurs and goblins from that group."

"There hasn't been news of a mass revolt yet," Hermione said. "I've been keeping all the _Daily Prophet_ to check and recheck everything. If there were any evidence that those creatures went over to his side, it would make the news. They would want to warn the public, wouldn't they?"

"So it has to be something that we missed out," Harry said thoughtfully. "Something that could give Voldemort the power he wants..."

Ron snorted. "You-Know-Who actively recruiting, and we have no idea who he's after to employ. Ironic."

&&&&

"Let go of me! LET GO OF ME I SAY! I'll teach that bastard a few lessons, let me go!"

Kouichi had barely time to orientate himself to his new surroundings as he Apparated in a small backyard with a high brick wall before more loud _cracks _signalled the arrival of more Digidestinied. Zoe and Tommy appeared on either sides of him, Tommy looking a bit disorientated, stumbling over with a small cry before Cho suddenly appeared out of nowhere and steadied the younger boy before he fell to the ground.

"I don't-" Tommy started to snap but managed to catch himself in time. Upon realising that he had almost been rather rude to an elder person, a taboo in the Eastern society, Tommy looked horrified and went red, mumbling an apology.

"What's going on there?" Zoe scrambled around a corner to see Takuya and Kouji snarling at each other, Takuya being restrained by Davis and T.K only barely managing to hold Kouji back. Kari was attempting to break the boys apart but with very little success, and was standing back a little in uncertainty.

"Stop it!" Cho suddenly came up between the arguing boys and pushed them apart with surprising strength. She frowned around at all of them, noting the less-than-happy looks on all their faces. Kouichi shuddered slightly as her dark brown eyes gazed upon him for a brief moment, but she soon moved on to observe Kouji. Even as the last two Digidestinied – J.P and Cody – joined them, they did not dare to break her glare.

"Now..." she began, her voice steady and firm, as though addressing a bunch of misbehaving children, "who here got annoyed back in Hogsmeade – or got close to losing their temper over small matters?"

"We all did," Kari said, glancing around at her fellow Gryffindors. "A – a hag, I think... It came up to us and insisted that we donate in support of the Dark Lord's cause, or something like that. It wouldn't leave us alone. That was right after Gatomon, Patamon and V-mon joined us. Then we saw the fireworks, and Apparated here, but Takuya..." Her voice trailed off nervously.

"We nearly got into a fight with Slytherins," J.P said sheepishly. "They were calling us some names." He stopped at this, not wanting to elaborate further, but Cho nodded anyway. The older girl then turned her piercing gaze to Draco.

"Draco?" Her tone was firm; she knew how to deal with the stubborn Slytherin.

"I nearly cursed Potter and his stupid friends," Draco mumbled. At the mention of the name, Cho's lips pursed slightly, and an unreadable expression crossed her face. It was gone in a moment, though, and she turned back to addressing the group as a whole.

"I don't know if anyone's listening, but at this rate it's probably too late to be careful, considering what we've done we might as well left a large 'Goodbye' sign on Dumbledore's desk telling him what we've done. The thing is, I think Voldemort's making his move already. Don't tell me you guys didn't sense that something was wrong."

"I felt bad the moment I entered Hogsmeade," Gatomon offered, shuddering slightly. "Like... Like I was so angry. I don't know what I was angry at, but now the feeling's gone. I don't like it. I could have attacked anyone or anything that annoyed me then."

A shocked silence greeted this. Finally J.P spoke.

"I've heard of Dementors spreading despair to people, but I don't know if there's any creature that, like Gatomon said, capable of spreading _anger_."

"Let's move then," Kouji said resolutely, voicing out what everyone wanted desperately to do at that moment. "The sooner we can get back to Japan the better. I hate the feeling of this."

Kouichi wondered about the dragon he had seen in the air above Hogsmeade less than a minute earlier, but before he could get the question out, Cody asked it for him. Draco and Cho glanced at each other; Cho rolled her eyes while Draco shrugged innocently.

"It's something the Weasley twins came up with," Draco explained. "Mass Optical Illusion – it creates a sort of magical illusion that causes people to see what the person who sets it off wants them to see. Fred and George modified, made it stronger than usual, it so it would cover all of Hogsmeade, and added the illusion of a group of creatures fighting. Not magical creatures though, but some that resemble Digimon. That way, if Dumbledore sees it he won't suspect that we've run away because he'll think that we're fighting there."

"Simple, but brilliant," Kari admitted, even though she wasn't the type who normally advocated such matters. "Now... We go to the twins, right?"

"Yup."

Cho had already opened up the entrance to Diagon Alley as Draco had been explaning the trick to them earlier, and they set off at a quick pace without trying to appear too rushed. Cho led the way as they hurried through the desolate street. Few people came out in light of the current danger, while the ones who were out were either huddled together in nervous, frightened groups or walking about confidently by themselves with an air that suggested they weren't as innocent as they made out to be.

"We look suspicious," Kouji murmured, falling into step beside Kouichi. Kouichi was slightly surprised at this; they hadn't been talking to each other much for the past few days, but it was clear that their concern for the Digiworld was more important than any petty argument. "Everyone else who's out are mostly adults, but we're a bunch of teenagers, obviously of school-going age, wandering about here by ourselves with no adult escorting us."

They hadn't bothered to check their appearances, but once Kouji pointed this out Kouichi realised his brother was right. Draco was still wearing the green and silver Slytherin scarf hanging loosely at his collar, while a quarter of them were dressed in black robes, the usual robe colour of Hogwarts students. The Digimon had hidden themselves away in bags, while Zoe and J.P carried rucksacks containing Muggle clothing for all of them once they got to Japan. They had decided that it would be too suspicious to wear Muggle clothing to Hogsmeade but now it seemed like a bad decision once they had reached Diagon Alley.

"Here we are," Draco said suddenly. He needn't have announced it, however, it was rather obvious they had arrived at a joke shop. One window was covered with bright, colourful posters emblazoned boldly with words poking fun at Voldemort and the wizarding community in general. The other was full of their merchandise on display, including a furry pink and yellow ball the size of a football whizzing around but somehow not knocking over anything.

They had seen this shop before on their previous trip to Diagon Alley to buy their school supplies, but they hadn't really explored the shop. Draco pushed open the door but didn't step in immediately. The reason was soon clear: there was a loud sound like someone farting and a hidden pipe over the door sprayed the entrance with bright yellow string.

There weren't many people there, owing to the fact that it was in the middle of the school term, but a good number of customers were browsing around nevertheless. "Weasley!" Draco called, stepping in, just as the yellow string vanished into thin air.

A few people turned to look at him, but Draco ignored them all. From the back of the shop came a young man with flaming red hair and in a brilliantly green robe that looked rather horrible with his hair colour. The young man broke into a mischevious grin.

"My favourite Slytherin brat," he said, offering them all a low bow. "And I suppose all of you are our honoured entourage from the Land of the Rising Moon?"

"It's not the Land of the _Rising Moon_, Fred." Out came Fred's twin brother, George, his appearance similar to his brother's down to the very last detail.

"Sorry, my deepest apologies. The Land of the Sinking Moon, then." Fred looked at the Japanese Digidestinied. "Ah!" he exclaimed with exaggerated surprise. "More clones!" He went up to Kouji and Kouichi and linked his arms with theirs. Kouji scowled heavily; Kouichi managed a sheepish grin. Fred, quite ignoring Kouji's indignance, patted each one of them on the head before turning to his brother.

"Business as usual, then?"

"Business as usual, Fred," George grinned. "By the way, Cho, Draco; you'll find what you want upstairs, the second door on the left."

A grin broke over Draco's face like he had never smiled before, and without another word or a single thank you he sprinted for the stairs, followed closely by Cho who at least seemed more controlled than the younger Slytherin. Kouichi had never seen Draco that excited before, and the Gryffindors were seriously reconsidering all the stories they had heard about him in Hogwarts. Never would anyone expected that the Slytherin-brat-cum-prince of Hogwarts would look so gleeful at something that didn't involve anyone getting hurt.

"So," George said, his tone suddenly brisk and business-like. "Name, age, date of birth and if you don't mind, your Social Security number as well." With a flourish he pretended to pull out a quill and parchment out of his robes and poised over his empty palm to take notes.

They laughed, feeling their previous tension disappearing at the twins' antics. One by one they introduced themselves, and as each one of them was done the Weasley twins pretended to cheer and clap. They were incredible, easily making all of them feel amazingly at ease and much less worried about their problems.

"Now... We can't have Cho and the little brat having all the fun, can we?" George motioned to the stairs. "Come on, upstairs, and we'll get down to serious business then."

They found Draco and Cho in a cluttered mess of what appeared to have been a liveable bedroom, surrounded by four Digimon. Kouichi recognised two of them; a Terriermon and a Lopmon, rabbit-like Digimon with long ears. Lopmon was a dark grey while Terriermon was white; colour the main thing that contrasted the two Digimon that were otherwise, quite alike in appearance. The other two he couldn't put names to was a small white Digimon cuddling up to Draco and a fox-like Digimon chattering happily to Cho.

"Guys, meet our Digimon." Fred grinned. He pointed to Terriermon. "Terriermon."

"Lopmon," George said, motioning to Lopmon as said Digimon flew across the room clutching an open packet of popcorn, spilling out yellow kernels everywhere.

"And this is Coronamon," Cho said affectionately, hugging her red Digimon close. "I missed you, Coronamon! Don't go back to the Digiworld, will you?"

"And Kudamon." Draco gestured to his partner, his eyes sparkling in a way that none of them could have imagined he was capable of. He looked genuinely happy, Kouichi noted. So different from the Draco Malfoy whom he had seen taunting the Gryffindors and bullying the younger students at school.

"Looks like a ferret," Takuya commented, staring at Kudamon. The twins dissolved into gales of laughter at this, and Malfoy scowled.

"Shut up."

&&&&

**Ken**


End file.
